


A Chance to Save Fate

by WrittenOnRoses



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe, Memory Loss, Multi, Superfamily (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-03-14 18:10:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 36,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13595565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WrittenOnRoses/pseuds/WrittenOnRoses
Summary: In 2015, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner discover an artificial intelligence within Loki’s scepter’s gem, and secretly decide to use it to complete Stark’s “Ultron” global defense program. However, after their plan fails, Tony and Bruce focus solely on the avengers. Tony and Steve lead the avengers on weekly missions, saving the world from whatever villain feels ballsy enough to face them. A year following the Ultron failure, Tony proposes to Steve after Steve came within inches of death. They hired a Cornell graduate student, Amanda, to be the surrogate of all their children. They first had a little girl with Tony’s DNA, naming her Mara Valia Rogers-Stark, followed by a boy they named Peter who had Steve’s DNA.On the morning of her 15th birthday, Mara is thrown into the timeline where Ultron did work and she has 10 days to save herself, her brother, and her family.





	1. (Today I Met) The People Who Raised Me.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, this is my first post. The first chapter is pretty long, the others will be relatively shorter. I hope you all like the story and I would love feedback. Thank you.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mara Rogers-Stark has a lot of convincing to do if she wants to save her family.

It was the morning of her 15th birthday, as Mara woke up shielding her eyes from the sunlight beaming directly at her. She groaned before begging her best friend to get rid of her problem. "J, please close the curtains."

"I was instructed to keep the curtains open after 7 a.m. to prevent you from sleeping-in." The AI responded with a playfulness in his voice.

“Every day J.A.R.V.I.S. Every day we have this conversation buddy. How am I supposed to consider you my best friend if you always take my parents’ side?”

“Ms. Mara, you would not want to waste your fifteenth birthday sleeping, now would you?” The AI pauses as the young girl lets out a loud frustrated groan. “You have been looking forward to this day since you were four Ms. Mara. Is there something bothering you?”

“Just you.” The girl smirks. J.A.R.V.I.S chuckles in response. The girl sits up, stretching her arms in the air. “As much as I love my parents, I really wish they would stop waking me up at midnight to wish me a happy birthday. They always complain about me not sleeping as much as I need, but they don’t hesitate to wake me.” The girl rolls herself off her bed and heads to her closet. “Where are they anyways?” Mara asks aloud as she pulls her pajama shirt off and puts on an Guns N’ Roses shirt with paint stains on it. “You’d think they would be bothering me to get ready for the party.”

“Your parents and the others had to leave for a quick mission. An unknown object appeared in the middle of times square and all were requested to analyze the object.” J.A.R.V.I.S. informs Mara.

A loud howl fills the room before a raspy female voice echoes, “Not all of them were really necessary.” Mara froze in place as J.A.R.V.I.S. sounded the warning alarm throughout the tower. “It looks more harmful than it really is. I just needed them to leave you alone for a few minutes.” A cackle overshadows the echo of the words. Mara continues to face her closet as she reaches slowly behind her drawer to grab her force-field pen Tony had created specifically for her. “I’m offended that they truly thought they got rid of me, as if I was just some powerless human.” Mara clicks the button on the bottom of the pen, causing blue light to run up her arms and enclose her body.

“Who are you?” She questions as she turns to look at the woman. The woman is about six-feet tall and as beautiful as a goddess. Her long black hair is pushed back by a golden crown, curling down her back and in front of her shoulders. Two snakes slither around her upper body. A low cut dark green dress reaches down to her feet. The color of her dress reflects that of her eyes. Mara takes in her appearance and her body tenses as they lock eyes. 

“My name is Hecate, goddess of magic and witchcraft.” She smiles cunningly. “Your fathers’ killed my dog.” She exaggerates a frown before smiling again. “All I was doing was trying to gather up some useless souls to feed my animals and then your parents came and foiled my plans.” She pauses, shifting her tone to a more serious one. “And killed my dog!” She snaps. “I’m sorry to do this on your special day, but I think it is time someone makes your parents pay for their actions, don’t you think?”

“You’re going to kill me?” Mara crosses her arms in front of her chest as if to protect herself. The protective shield glowed at the contact. 

“Oh, no. No sweetie.” Hecate laughs like that was a ridiculous idea. “That would be too easy. I want your parents to suffer. Especially that Stark.” A green smoke is emitted from her hands and flows around Mara’s feet.

“In the timeline where your father built their greatest rival,  
You will be placed with one task at hand.  
You are to persuade them into remembering you to ensure your survival.  
If all fails within the 10 days,  
Your life and there’s will be at stake.  
You and your brother will disappear from the Earth and  
All their lives will be filled with loneliness and hurt.  
It is misery I seek, but I won’t be unfair, no.  
With one condition at hand, you can stop the timeline.  
Pick and choose one of your parents to reveal your secret to.  
Be careful, and choose wisely, because I will show no pity.  
If you choose the wrong parent to trust, then you will never be.  
When the clock strikes 12 midnight,  
Your soul is mine.”

Hecate finishes her monologue as the smoke circles around Mara’s whole body. The young girl screams as her body begins to fall into a pitch-black void. 

***

Mara wakes up on the floor of what seems to be the communal living room. She pinches the bridge of her nose and closes her eyes tightly, groaning at the pounding pressure in her head. Sensing a presence around her she sits up frantically but breathes out a sigh in relief as she notices she is surrounded by her family --- or what seems to be much younger versions of her family members; she sees Tony, Steve, Natasha, Clint, Wanda, and Sam. She giggles softly before shaking her head as she considers the possibility of her nightmare having been a reality. “Hello.” She says cautiously.

“Who are you and why did you come here?” Her aunt Nat is the first to speak up.

“I’m-. You guys don’t know me?” She gets her answer as the once confused faces seem even more confused. “Well, alright. Okay so it was my fifteenth birthday and I was getting dressed so I could go searching for my parents. Then this scary lady showed up in my room and started hexing me? I guess you can say. Anyways I’m Mara. Hello.” She says lifting her hand slightly to greet them all. “I’m from a timeline that is supposed to be better than this one. I think that’s what the witch lady said. I have 10 days to fix everything and have my parents remember me or else all my family ends up living a life full of misery.” The female chuckles awkwardly as the team continues to stare her down. “Well until midnight on the 10th day so if it isn’t midnight then I probably already lost some time.”

“10 past.” Clint offers.

“Don’t tell her anything.” Steve warns Clint.

“What do you want from us?” Natasha questions. “How did you get here?”

“Who’s your parents?” Steve cuts off Nat. 

With one condition at hand, you can stop the timeline. Pick and choose one of your parents to reveal your secret to. Be careful, and choose wisely, because I will show no pity. If you choose the wrong parent to trust, then you will never be. “Well the thing is-.” “Answer us.” Steve demands.

Mara takes a deep breath in before the words just fall out, “you’re my dad.” She whacks herself on her forehead with her left hand, regretting her choice immediately. Her right hand remains pointed. 

Tony shutters as he stares at the finger pointing to him. Everyone’s eyes follow her hand and their questions become directed at Tony. Tony finally shakes the fearful expression off his face and offers a playful smile before walking into the kitchen joined with the living room. He pours himself coffee and takes a seat around the island, pretending it was just a normal day in the avengers’ tower. The team exchange glances before everyone but Steve follows Tony to the table. 

Steve hesitantly offers a hand to pull Mara up on her feet. He doesn’t shift his gaze from her. She looks up at him and smiles brightly. He doesn’t smile back.

“Stark, can we address the elephant in the room please?” Sam pleads.

“Alright kid, I’ll bite.” He says turning in his chair to face Mara. “Which one-night stand did you result from? Huh?” The only response he gets is a loud gasp. The girl’s face turns a deep shade of crimson and her eyes fill with tears.

“Tony.” Steve shoots him a look and Tony just shrugs like he could care less.

“J.A.R.V.I.S.!” The girl shouts at the top of her lungs. “Jar! Show me to a room please!” Her voice falters slightly as she becomes chocked-up. “J.A.R.V.I.S. buddy?” She squeaks before wiping her face with her forearm; ignoring the attentive stares from her family members.

“Sir, is she talking to me?” A female’s voice surrounds the room.

“I believe so F.R.I.D.A.Y.” Tony says nonchalantly. 

Mara stops shouting as her shoulders slump and she walks out into the hallway with her head down.

“Should we follow her?” Clint studies the faces of his teammates. 

“She’s just a kid. There’s only so much harm she can do.” Sam shrugs.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y. don’t you dare stop monitoring her, not even for a second.” Tony warns. He tries not to show it, but his teammates can see how panicked he looks.

The teen continues to drag herself down the hall, hoping to find an open room she could cry in. She settles in a conference room and shuts the door before throwing herself on a chair and folding herself over the table to cry. The team stays around the kitchen table as Tony pulls up a holographic image of the young girl. “No offense Nat, but I think she could out spy you any day. Look at this charade. I almost feel bad for her.” Tony says smugly.

“To be fair Stark, she looks just like you.” Wanda finally speaks up. The team nod in agreement, but before anyone can say anything the elevator door opens.

“Hello?” Pepper calls out before she joins the team in the kitchen.

“Your mistakes are finally catching up to you.” Wanda smiles and Tony quickly gets rid of the holograph. 

Pepper approaches the table and studies the team’s faces, “What did I miss.”

“Pepper. It is so late. What are you doing here?”

“I’ve been gone for two weeks. I thought you would like to see me.”

“Oh. Oh yeah, of course.” Tony says. Pepper leans in to kiss him and he kisses her cheek.

“Are you okay?”

“It has just been such a busy day. Right guys?”

They all mumble awkwardly in agreement except Wanda. Tony shoots her a look.

“Oh. Sure.” Wanda says with a smirk on her face.

“Honey, you really need to take some time to relax. Let’s go up to your room and get some sleep.”

“No!” He says pulling his arm from her grip. He glances at his teammates with wide eyes. “I’m not tired. You can go up or you can go home. I think I’m going to go work in my lab.” He says frantically as he runs to the elevator.

Pepper stares after him, but then turns to the others. “Did I do something?”

“He’s just a little shaken up. He’ll be fine, Pepper. Go home and get some sleep. Give him some time.” Steve says as he walks over to Pepper. “I’ll walk you down.”

***

Mara’s crying finally subdues. “What time is it?”

“It is 3:17 a.m. Ms. Mara.” The AI responds.

“Thank you.” She wipes her eyes. “What do they call you?”

“F.R.I.D.A.Y.”

“Do you play music, F.R.I.D.A.Y.?”

“I can, if you’d like.”

“Can you play The Way You Look Tonight.” 

Frank Sinatra’s voice fills the room and Mara smiles slightly before falling asleep. 

***

Tony swerves in his chair, holding his pen to his mouth. He runs his hands through his hair nervously. “F.R.I.D.A.Y., send a voice message to Bruce: I’m going to need you to do me a favor. Run some blood tests on the girl. Find out who her parents are and make sure she isn’t overdosing on some weird hallucinogenic or something. I don’t want to see her until the tests are done. If she’s not mine, I want her out on the street. If she’s not as crazy as she sounds, let her stay.”

He lets F.R.I.D.A.Y. send the message. He shakes his head as he sits back in his chair. Music suddenly plays through his lab, causing him to sit up. “F.R.I.D.A.Y.? What is that?” 

“Frank Sinatra, sir.”

“I know that F.R.I.D.A.Y. Why is it playing in my lab?”

“Your daughter requested it, sir.”

“She’s not my daughter. Stop being a smartass F.R.I.D.A.Y.”

“I am only a learning artificial intelligence sir.”

He tuts, “funny F.R.I.D.A.Y.” He pushes his chair away from his desk. “Pull up the holograph.” The blue hologram appears in front of him. Mara has her head on the conference room table and her chair has rolled away slightly, causing her body to stretch awkwardly. “Dammit. She is going to fall off that chair.” Tony swipes away the graphic and stands from his seat. 

***

Natasha opened the door to the guest room, standing on the side of the bed where the young girl slept. Mara stirred and lifted a hand to cover her eyes. “J.A.R.V.I.S. buddy, the shades please?” She groans when she doesn’t get a response. She lays covering her eyes for a couple more seconds before sitting up abruptly. She stares at Natasha and then rolls her eyes, “you’re still a redhead. Wait, how did I… I was in a different room. What time is it anyways?”

“What was I supposed to be?”

“Huh? Oh, you dyed your hair blonde after an undercover mission, because tío said it was a good look on you.” Mara’s face scrunches slightly, unsure of what she’s allowed to admit. 

Natasha ignores her comment, yanking the blanket off Mara’s body. “How did you sleep?

“Uh… Pretty good.”

F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s voice fills the room “Subtracting the five times Ms. Mara woke drenched in sweat, she slept for approximately 2 hours and 29 minutes.”

“Snitch.” Mara whispers.

“It is almost 6. We are going sparring. Now.” Natasha says as she walks out the room. Mara rolls herself out of bed and follows quickly behind her aunt. They walk down the hall and turn the corner, stopping in front of two metal doors. The doors open for them and Mara continues to follow Natasha. “Did you sleep in your shoes?” Mara looks down, noticing that she did. They walk along a smaller hallway; the wall is covered in glass so you can peer inside the mini gym. At the end of the hall, Natasha slides open a door and they step in. 

Mara sits down on the bench to adjusts her pants and tie her hair.

“In this timeline you claim to be a part of-.” Natasha begins, “-what is our relationship?”

“You’re my aunt.” Mara smiles to herself. “You’ve taught me everything I know about fighting.” She says as she takes off her shoes and socks. “One of my parents, let’s say parent #2, wanted you to be my godmother, but they already picked my godfather so you couldn’t be my godmother, but you are my brother, Peter’s, godmother.” Natasha adjusts her clothing, but keeps an eye on the girl as she speaks; trying to find a reason to not believe her.

Natasha stands and gets into a fighting stance on the laid-out mats. Mara follows suit and smiles as she stands a safe distance from her aunt. Waiting for a second in hesitation, Natasha makes her move. She goes to kick the girl in her chest, but Mara grabs her ankle and flips her aunt over. Natasha’s stern expression shows a hint of surprise before hardening again. 

From the corner of her eye she can see that Steve and Sam entered the hallway and were watching from outside the glass window. She got back up swiftly and jumped towards the female, kicking and punching. Mara seemed to know all her moves before she did them, giving her the upper hand. Once more Mara is able to flip the Black Widow on her back. She smiles down at her aunt and jokingly says, “don’t worry, in my timeline you kick my butt all the time.” 

Natasha doesn’t return the smile as she slips a leg between Mara’s and sweeps her off her feet, causing her back to slam into the ground. The girl lets out a loud grown and grimaces in pain. Natasha flips herself over and is eventually on top of Mara. She clasps her left hand around the young girl’s throat and raises the other in the air, ready to punch. The girl tries to pry Natasha’s hand from her throat, but it won’t budge. “Alright, alright. Tasha. I fold.” She manages to get the words out with a giggle before the Black Widow squeezes harder. Mara’s tone becomes serious as she begins to speak in Russian, “Please auntie, you’re really hurting me now.”

Natasha steps back in bewilderment. For a second she stares at Mara with a shocked expression but snaps back into reality. She turns to leave, “there’s a bag outside the showers for you. We can wash your clothes later.” Natasha walks out, passing Steve and Sam. 

“What did she say to you, Nat?” Steve chases after the red-head. “Come on, talk to me! You’re obviously shaken up and you never are!”

Sam begins to slowly follow after them as Steve continues to yell. “If you realized she really is a spy then we could all be in danger.”

Natasha turns back and Steve stops abruptly so he doesn’t bump into her. “I believe her.” And with only that as an explanation, Natasha leaves Steve and Sam in the hallway. 

***

As she gets out of the shower, Mara goes through the duffel bag Natasha left her. She pulls out five big t-shirts with cheesy puns on each, 2 pairs of raggedy gym shorts, a pair of holey joggers, a pack of panties, and two sports bras. She decides on the “everything happens for a reason… and that reason is usually physics” t-shirt and joggers. 

She leaves her hair wrapped in the towel and lugs the bag out into the main hallway. Opening the door to the conference room, she is surprised to see Bruce on his tablet with a plate of pancakes in front of him. “Hello.” She greets him. “Is it okay if I leave my bag here?” 

Bruce looks up at her and nods, “yeah, no one ever comes in here.” He looks back down at his tablet, swiping occasionally. Mara throws her bag under the table and takes a seat across from the focused man. She leans back in her chair and starts to mindlessly tap her fingers on the table. Bruce puts down his tablet and looks up at the girl again. She notices him staring and shrinks down in her chair, looking towards the large screen in the room. “Here, eat this,” he says as he pushes the plate to her.

She accepts the plate cautiously. “Um. Thank you.”

“Are you afraid of needles?”

The girl looks up at him, raising an eyebrow. “No?” She replies with her mouth full. 

“Good. That’s good.” He says as he nods. He scratches his chin, studying the females face. 

Mara finishes her plate before jumping up from her seat in fright. Vision comes out of the wall and stands at the side of the room. “What the heck?” Mara shouts, looking at Bruce for an explanation. 

“Hello, Ms. Mara.” Vision greets her. 

Mara’s body relaxes slightly as she looks at Vision with hopeful eyes. “J.A.R.V.I.S.?” 

“Actually, Mara, Vision here was made by Ultron. He is a mixture of Ultron and J.A.R.V.I.S.” Bruce explains.

Mara huffs as she crosses her arms in front of her chest. “My father’s worst and best creations mixed together.” She glares at Vision, “so which side do you lean more to?”

“I am not here to hurt you or the avengers, Ms. Mara.” 

She glares at him for a second longer before relaxing her arms to her side and sitting down again. “Okay then.” 

“Vision is here to help me help you.” Bruce says, getting up from his seat. “It’s good you aren’t afraid of needles.” He says as he gestures her to follow him. Vision stands by the door, waiting for the girl to exit first.

“Got to be honest with you Vision. Vis. Is it okay if I call you Vis?” The girl questions as she glances over her shoulder to the android.

“Yes, that would be fine Ms. Mara.”

“Okay. To be honest, hearing your voice is the most comforting thing about this whole situation.”

“Happy to be of service.”

Bruce leads them into the elevator and then onto his personal floor. 

As they step out of the elevator, Mara lets out a relieved sigh. “I thought you guys would trap me on that floor the whole 10 days.” She stretches her arms exaggeratedly and smiles at the two, hoping to soften the mood. Vision smiles back at her, but Bruce just continues walking.

“I’m going to run a few tests. First, we will find out if you really are Tony’s daughter.”

“You know I am.”

Bruce ignores her and continues explaining their to-do list. “Then we will try to figure out who your mother is.” 

“I already know who my biological mother is.”

“Then we will make sure your health is okay.” 

They enter his personal lab and Mara looks around with wide eyes. “This isn’t so different.” Choosing to continue ignoring the girl’s comments, Bruce stands in front of a table, patting it so the girl knows to sit there. She pushes herself up on it and dangles her feet. 

Vision moves to stand in the corner of the room, watching the two at a distance. 

“So, Vis. Do you sleep or eat?” 

“No. Ms. Mara.”

“What do you do for fun around here?”

“I like to have conversations with Wanda. I like to watch Wanda practice her powers. I like to help Wanda cook.” Vision stops as the girl starts shaking in her seat from laughing. “Did I say something wrong?”

“Stop moving.” Bruce warns Wanda, cleaning her arm with an alcohol wipe.

“No, you didn’t say anything wrong.” Mara assures Vision. “So, you like hanging out with Wanda?” She flinches as Bruce inserts the needle into her vein. 

“I really do enjoy spending time with her.” Mara smiles widely, forgetting the needle in her arm. 

“Okay, eat this.” Bruce hands Mara a cookie half the size of her face. “I will be running the tests, it might take an hour or so. Tony said you have to stay here until they are done.”

She clicked her tongue. “Incase I’m not his child, you can remove me?” Bruce offers her what might be a sympathetic look before moving to place the vials of blood in a machine she has seen before. “You know I’m his child.” Bruce types some codes into the machine before leaving Mara and Vision in the lab. She finishes her cookie and then brings her attention to the android. “What do you think, Vis?”

Vision takes a second to think about his answer. “I think you undoubtedly look like Mr. Stark and I have seen no indication on your face that you may be lying about what you say. Bruce explained to me what you told them. How about you explain it to me.”

Mara lays down on the table, clasping her hands over her stomach. “Well. I remember waking up sometime after 7 in the morning of my 15th birthday. I changed out of my pajamas because I wanted to go look for my parents. They promised to help me get ready because I was going to have a quinceañera later that night. J.A.R.V.I.S. explained to me that they all went on a mission. I froze when I heard a lady’s voice in my room. I thought she was going to kill me. She said my parents and the other avengers killed her dog. She said she would put me in a timeline where my father built their greatest rival."

“Ultron.” Vision notes as he moved towards the girl.

The girl nods and continues, “She said I had 10 days to get them to remember me or else my brother and I will not be born and the avengers will live lives filled with um-.” She squints her eyes as she tries remembering the words. “Filled will loneliness and hurt. I could tell one of my parents that I am there child. And when the clock strikes midnight, my soul is hers to keep.” 

“What else?”

“I was covered in green smoke and then I wasn’t in my room anymore.”

“Where were you?”

The girl shivers and wraps her arms around her middle. Closing her eyes tightly, she continues, “It was pitch black all around me and I was falling. Then suddenly, it was like if a screen was above me. I saw my father and Bruce attempt to build Ultron and it failed like it was supposed to, but then when they left the room he came alive. He was smiling right at me like if he was waiting for me.” She opens her eyes and stares at the ceiling. 

“What happened next?”

“I was in the living room surrounded by my family, but they didn’t look the same. They looked at me like I was a threat.” Mara wipes her eyes. 

“I believe that you aren’t lying.” She turns her head to smile at the android who was now only five feet from the table. “However, I cannot confirm that what you believe had actually happened.” 

She lets out a long sigh, “Yeah, I understand.” She jumps up from her position when she hears a loud, long beep. “Uh.”

“Your results are done. I will go retrieve Bruce. You are not to move Mara.” But as Vision heads towards the exit, Bruce is already walking in. 

“Alright, kid.” Bruce says aloud as he walks over to the machine. He opens a holograph above the printer and does some scrolling and swiping, before about 15 sheets are printed out. He hums loudly as he reads through the results, looking over at Mara occasionally. 

“So?” The girl questions as she shifts her position on the table. “I’m his kid, right?”

“Did you have any doubts?” Bruce says, still reading through the sheets. 

“No, but the anticipation was fun.”

“You are his kid.” Bruce confirms with a tenseness in his voice. 

“Awh man.” The girl frowns and kicks her feet. Bruce looks over at her, not entertained. “You know-.” The female starts. “-you used to be the cool uncle.” 

“Kid.” Bruce quiets her. “Your cortisol levels are abnormally high. Your blood sugar levels are fine right now, but-.” He turns through his sheet with a concerned face. “But there is a test to measure long term-.”

“The A1C test?”

He looks up at her with his eyebrows scrunched together, “Yeah. You have high blood glucose levels. What do you eat at home?”

“It is because the chronic anxiety, or at least that is what my doctor back home says.”

“I guess that would explain why your heart rate and respirations are constantly elevated.” He scratches his head. “You’re going to need to start taking care of yourself.”

“I go to therapy once a week. I live with a doctor. I have J.A.R.V.I.S. to monitor my vitals, hours of sleep, and everything else needed.” She thinks about that for a second. “Well of course not right now. Too be honest I’m not even sure I will survive the 10 days.”

“If you need someone to talk to-.”

“Okay.” Mara cuts him off, noticing how uncomfortable it made him to even begin that sentence. “Thank you.”

“Well. Let’s go talk to Tony.” Bruce says nervously. Mara and Vision follow him out of the room. Vision takes Mara’s hand and she lets out a breath she was holding.

As they exit the elevator, they pass Wanda in the hall. She glares at Mara, tensing up when she sees Mara holding hands with Vision. Mara pulls away abruptly, continuing to follow Bruce into the kitchen.

“Tony.” Bruce states apologetically. 

Tony stares at Bruce and then back at the girl before muttering, “Awh, fuck.”

***

Mara slumps into the couch, listening to Tony and Bruce having a shouting match in the hallway outside of the kitchen. The others sit around the kitchen island, staring the girl’s way.

“I told you to get rid of her!” Tony shouts.

“You said to kick her out if the tests show she isn’t your child!”

“You couldn’t have lied to her?”

“She’s not stupid Tony! I wasn’t going to kick her out!”

“I do not want her here!”

“She can hear you!”

“Good! I want her to hear me.”

“Why don’t you just consider that she might be telling the truth! If she is right then this effects all of us, not just you! Stop being so self-involved!” 

“Guys! Guys! Stop fighting!” Steve gets involved. 

“Easy for you to say Captain Perfect! You don’t have a strange child claiming to be your kid from some other dimension!” Tony shouts.

Mara sighs and sinks into the couch more. Natasha walks over to her and flops onto the cushion next to her. 

“It is just 10 days okay? You can handle this for 10 days.” Steve tries to compromise with Tony.

“Where’s her birth certificate?” Tony looks at Bruce.

“She doesn’t have one. She said she wasn’t even supposed to be born for another two and a half years.” Bruce responds.

“Can you at least tell me her mom is hot?” Tony stops shouting and seems curious. 

"Um. Well-.” Bruce avoids eye contact with Tony.

“Um. Well. What? Banner!” Tony mocks.

“She is about to turn 23 in a month.” Bruce says as he stares at his feet.

Tony looks at him with disgust. “Oh my god.” He stomps into the living room, causing the female to shift in her seat. He goes to grab her, but Natasha jumps in between them. “I need to talk to her.”

“Don’t touch her.” Natasha warns.

Tony takes a step back. “Your mother is a child.”

“My biological mother is quite younger than you, yes.”

“Why do you keep dancing around everything!” 

The girl brings her knees to her chest. 

“Tony.” Steve warns from behind the couch.

“You can’t have kids. My other parent can’t have kids. Amanda entered her graduate studies at Cornell University and she decided to do research on the effects of childbearing on a woman’s body. You got two kids; she got her tuition and loans paid off. You help her, she helps you.” Mara explains.

“Who is your other parent?”

“My only condition is: I can only tell one of my parents that they are my parent.”

“You are unbelievable.”

“Actually, sir.” Vision interjects. “She is most definitely believable. I can promise you, she is not lying. She believes everything she is saying.”

“You couldn’t word that differently, Vis?” Mara whines. 

“Sorry, Ms. Mara.” Vision replies. 

“Vis? We are letting her give us nicknames now?” Tony throws his hands up in the air like he can’t believe everyone has betrayed him. “Is everyone really falling for this?”

“I believe her.” Natasha says.

“I don’t.” Clint replies, smiling when Wanda and Bruce agree.

“Steve?” Tony pleads.

He shakes his head, “I don’t. I don’t know.” 

***

Mara locks herself in the conference room for the rest of the night, playing music loudly. Eventually Natasha and Sam stop trying to get her to open the room. She scribbles drawings on the sheets of paper Bruce offered her. The ink in the pen she has begins to run out and she scribbles hard, trying to get it to work. When she realizes it is no use, she flings the pen across the room. Eventually all her papers are on the floor and the conference room chairs are scattered on the far end of the room. She tires herself out and eventually passes out on the conference room floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is the first of 11. The first 10 are based on each day of the 10 days. 
> 
> Instead of mistranslating throughout the story I will just indicate what language the character is speaking and then italicize their words. 
> 
> *Hecate is the daughter of Perses and Asteria (Titans). She is the goddess of magic, witchcraft, the night, moon, ghosts and necromancy.
> 
> *The title of this chapter was inspired by the song "(Today I met) the boy I'm going to marry"


	2. Isn't She Lovely?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 2.
> 
> Progress made: not enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have half of the story completed. I'm not entirely sure if anyone is reading, but I will still be posting every other day. Thank you if you are here and reading.
> 
> .  
> Petrie = the dinosaur from Land Before Time

Mara shifts uncomfortably on the floor and notices the mess around her. “F.R.I.D.A.Y.?”

“You had gotten very angry and threw all the furniture around.” The AI informs. 

“Oh.” Her eyes go wide as she sits up and stretches. “You’re not going to tell Tony, are you?”

“I won’t if you won’t.”

The female giggles, “You’re not so bad F.R.I.D.A.Y.”

“Would you like me to unlock the door?”

“Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah, you can unlock it.”

As soon as the click sounds, the doorknob turns and Natasha walks into the conference room. “Are you always like this?” She questions as she looks around at the messy room. Mara stands up and starts fixing the chairs, keeping her head down in embarrassment. Natasha watches her, “I would like to know more about that hex.”

Mara falls onto her knees to gather up her sketches. “Well, Hec-.” She stops as Natasha walks out into the hallway. “She never asks you to follow her, she just always expects people to know what she is thinking.” Mara rolls her eyes before following Natasha into the kitchen where Clint and Wanda are waiting.

*****

“Now I have less than nine days to make my parents remember me or else me and my brother are never born and you all live miserable lives.” Mara finishes explaining the curse.

“You said you were Stark’s kid. Why would I shed a tear if you disappear?” Clint replies in an apathetic tone. 

“I’m not saying you will be miserable without me. I’m saying you would be cursed and the curse will make you miserable.” Mara explains.

“Who is your other parent?” Wanda questions.

“I was given one condition: I could only tell one of my parents that I’m their child.” Mara replies.

“What a load of bull.” Clint says as he rolls his eyes. 

“If I could tell both, don’t you think I would? That would at least put me in a situation where they can both try to remember me.” She’s met with disbelieving glares from Clint and Wanda. “Where is Pietro? He would believe me. He always believes me.” She whines. And in a fraction of a second the girl is sent flying from her chair and across the room. 

“Don’t ever say my brother’s name again!” Wanda is over the girl’s body the moment she turned to her as if a glitch had occurred. “He is dead.” Mara’s eyes open comically wide before she begins to cry. Wanda turns away and then she is gone. 

“I guess you didn’t do enough research, huh?” Clint says with a smirk. 

*****

After Clint finished his breakfast, Natasha followed him out of the room and into the elevator, thumping the back of his head when the doors closed. Mara spent some time sitting against the wall she was thrown into, trying to recover from the pain. But the physical pain didn’t even begin to compare to the ache in her heart. 

She finally managed to limp to a chair, carefully sitting on it as she groaned loudly. Wanda reenters the kitchen and Mara stiffens at the sight. 

“I am not going to touch you.” Wanda says, taking a seat next to the girl. After a few moments she speaks again. “Your father’s creation killed him.” Wanda bites.

“Ultron.” The younger girl states as she folds her arms on the table. She lays her head against her arms and faces Wanda. “I didn’t mean to make you upset.” 

After a minute of silence Wanda turns to the girl. “I would like to see what is inside your head.”

Mara sits up straight still looking at Wanda. “Alright.” She nods then turns her head to face straight. Wanda hesitates for a second before she lifts her hands by Mara’s face, the scarlet glow is reflected in both girls’ eyes. 

They are in a field of grass and the sun is shining brightly above them. Wanda’s facial structures are more defined; she’s much older. A smile is plastered on her face as she sways her hands back and forth, using her powers for entertainment. Mara is laughing uncontrollably as she levitates in the air; she looks like she’s no more than 10 years old. Wanda shifts her hands, causing Mara to levitate higher as Pietro zooms past them. He runs to them again, but at a normal speed. By slowing down, you can see that he carries a younger boy on his back. Wanda’s smile grows as she takes her attention away from Mara and stares at her twin affectionately. The glow disappears from Wanda’s hands and Mara screams.

Pietro is there in an instant and cradles her in his arms. “Got to work on concentration sister.” Pietro teases and Wanda rolls her eyes.

“Don’t tell me what to do.” She replies but can’t help but laugh as the children cling to her brother.

“I am older than you.” He says with a smile extending to his ears.

She laughs again, “Only by 12 minutes!” Pietro puts the kids on the floor and they wrap around each of his legs.

“Come on uncle Petrie.” Mara says, causing the little boy to throw his head back in laughter.

“Hold on tight little munchkins.” Pietro says before zooming off with the kids.

Unaware, a smile formed on Wanda’s face, but she quickly shook it off. Mara blinks, escaping the trance she was in, and looks over at Wanda sympathetically. They both blush when they notice they have an audience. Sam, Steve, Bruce, and Clint are staring at them from the other side of the table. 

“Forgive me Mara.” Wanda says taking Mara’s hand in hers. “But I am going to need some time.” Mara nods as she uses her free hand to cover their joined ones. 

Wanda holds her head down as she walks quickly out of the room. Mara offers the group a small smile before grabbing her water from the table and leaving to the conference room. 

“Kind of wish I had those powers right now.” Sam says to the others. 

“She’s just messing with us.” Clint says.

“Well she obviously had Wanda shaken up. Maybe it is time to start considering things.” Steve counters. 

“Like I’ve said before, Wanda’s seal of approval means jack to me.” Clint bites. 

Steve turns to Bruce for his opinion, “Well, what do you think?”

Bruce shrugs. “Vision said the girl believes in what she is saying. The DNA test proves she is Tony’s daughter. I just think there may be a more logical explanation for the whole thing.”

“Which may be?” Steve questions.

“I don’t know yet.” Bruce replies. 

*****

Sam knocks on the conference room door, holding a plastic bag. “It is Sam Wilson.” F.R.I.D.A.Y. announces.

“Yeah thanks F.R.I.D.A.Y., but I can see through the glass door.”

“Should I tell him he is welcome to come in?”

“Uh. Yeah…”

Sam opens the door and takes the seat closest to the sketches. “You like to draw?”

“Steve taught me.”

“Of course, he did.”

“Huh?” Mara looks up at Sam, questioningly.

“He likes children.”

“Oh.” Mara looks back down at the table. “Should I call you Mr. Wilson, or-?”

“Kid just call me what you want to call me.” Sam replies.

“Are you sure?”

“Might as well.”

“Okay. Uncle little.”

“Uncle little?”

“Um. Yeah, I used to call you that when I was learning how to talk. So, it just kind of stuck.”

“Little? Little? What about me is little?”

“You look like chicken little in the falcon suit.”

“You know what? You really are a Stark.” She perks up like a dog hearing their owner’s car pull-up in the driveway. “Don’t look so excited. I already believed you.” The girl lifts an eyebrow in confusion. “There’s no way your tantrum the first night was an act.” He smiles at her as she crosses her arms over her chest and pouts.

“I had a good reason.”

Sam nods in acknowledgment before handing her the plastic bag he was holding. She takes it hesitantly and he laughs, “don’t worry. It is just some tee-shirts and another pair of joggers.”

“Is there something wrong with the shirts Natasha gave me?” She giggles.

“Your shirt says, ‘In my defense I was left unsupervised’ and is about four sizes too big.” He laughs as he starts to flip through her sketches. “I guess Steve has taught you a lot.”

“He’s very patient.” She says as she looks at Sam nervously. 

“These are really nice. Who is this boy you keep drawing? Wow, what is this?” Sam’s face looks on intently as he studies her drawings.

“Um, that is an attempt at drawing my brother. He wanted me to design a superhero suit for him, so I’ve been sketching options.”

“What is with the spider theme?”

“Well, um. For my last high school science fair, I was studying spiders. We ended up with lots of spiders in the lab and Tony decided to put them to use when I was finished. He and Banner were trying to figure out a cure for this disease a colleague had. They injected one spider with something, that spider bit my brother, my brother got superhuman abilities.”

“Like?”

“Superhuman strength, superhuman reflexes, and he can climb walls and stuff.”

“How strong is he?”

“He is slightly stronger than Steve, but he also doesn’t have his powers under control, so I believe he’ll be stronger than everyone.”

“Sure, sure. Everyone besides me of course.” 

“Well, of course uncle Little.”

“Keep it up.” He says as he gets up from his chair. She laughs and he smiles at her. “We are going to fix this, okay?” He passes her and pats her on the shoulder. “It will be alright.”

She smiles at him and nods, knowing neither of them believe those words. “F.R.I.D.A.Y. can you create a couple of playlists for me?”

“Of course, Ms. Mara.” 

“Create a playlist and name it My Last Days.” Mara pauses to think after each song.

“Anything else Ms. Mara?” 

“Create a playlist called In the Lab…”

*****

Mara decides to finally entertain herself in the communal lab. Using whatever parts she could scrap up, she decides to make her own version of Dum-E and Dum-U. “Alright buddy.” The robot comes to life, squeaking and clapping its claw together. “See you’re already better than the two dummies because you were made by me. The better Stark.” She giggles as the robot hand clasps a wrench and drops it on her lap. “Pegs. I’m going to call you pegs. You want to play fetch buddy?” The robot speeds its way to the other side of the lab and waits for the wrench. “Pegs, you were supposed to let me throw it first.” The robot speeds back her way, but she throws the wrench over it. The robot immediately turns around and goes to retrieve the item. The girl laughs loudly at the sight.

“What are you doing?” Tony’s voice booms around the room.

“Maybe you should come down and see.”

“I _see_ that you are touching my stuff.” Tony replies, annoyed.

“It’s the communal lab. It is meant to be touched.”

“Yes, by residents. You, _kid_ , are not a resident.”

“Maybe you can call the cops to arrest me. Maybe put it on the news. Reporters taking pictures of the cops dragging me out in hand-cuffs. Me screaming ‘But that’s my dad’.” She fakes a cry. 

“You are something else.”

“I wonder where I get that from.”

Tony snorts. “Just. You break it, you buy it.” 

Mara spins in the chair, pulling the pen out of her ponytail and placing it in between her teeth. “Pegs. I’m going to need you help me to build something.” The robot drops the tools it collected and rolls its way to her. “What is in your mouth? Jeez, I can’t take my eyes off you for one second.” The girl lectures the robot as she pulls a brick sized radio out of the robot’s claw. “A radio? This thing looks ancient!” She turns the radio around a couple times, analyzing it. “I hope it was broken before you touched it, Pegs. Tony will kick us both out on the streets.”

The robot lowers it’s claw as it slowly rolls to the wall. “Hey! Oh, my Thor! I could use this. This is it. Thank you Pegs, you’re the best.” She sits up and pushes the chair towards the large desk. “Bring me your tools.” The robot shakes its claw and lets out a noise that sounds like a refusal. “Don’t you dare start with me.” Mara warns and the robot clasps its fingers before going to retrieve the tools. “Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?” The robot turns away and rolls to the other side of the lab. “I don’t have the time to deal with you right now.” 

“Alright. F.R.I.D.A.Y. can you shuffle my In the Lab playlist?” Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin starts to play. Mara plays the air guitar, scrunching one side of her face to mimic the singer’s wails. "The hammer of the god will drive our ships to new land." She sings in a deep voice. “Pegs, I know you like this.” The robot starts to mimic the girl by banging his claw back and worth. “There you go buddy.” Mara says as she begins to work on the broken radio. 

Before the song can finish, Mara turns on the radio and plays with the station knob. She carries the radio in her arms as she goes to sit against the wall. Pegs rolls over to her, hoping to play with the radio. “Not now, Pegs. When I’m done.” The robot clasps his claw in annoyance but backs away as the girl puts on her makeshift headphones and starts fiddling with a wire. 

Static plays from the radio and Mara pinches the wire to make several clicking sounds. She waits for a response, but repeats the sequence when she hears nothing. This time she hears a short sequence of clicking. Her face scrunches up in disappointment, before she power offs the device and holds it to her side. 

“Was that not the response you wanted to hear?” Mara jumps as she notices Clint standing by the door.

“Um, I was just-.”

“Just trying to report back to whoever sent you?” Clint asks with a suspicious look on his face. “Step away from it.” He demands as he pulls out an arrow from his bow quiver, aiming it at the girl. 

She stands up abruptly, holding the radio to her side. “Clint, don’t! Please!” She holds out her hand.

“I’m giving you three seconds and then I’ll shoot.”

“Please!”

“One.”

“Stop!” The girl screams, but let’s go of the radio, running to the corner of the room. The arrow sticks to the radio and causes a tiny explosion. The girl slides down the wall and begins to cry loudly. She brings her knees to her chest and covers her face.

“Who is PRS? And why were you asking them to come in?”

The girl looks up with a look of disbelief, “I was trying to see if I could contact my brother somehow! His name is Peter Stark! I wanted to know if he is okay!”

“What is the R for?”

“My other parent’s last name!”

“Bullshit!” Clint shouts as he grabs another arrow and points it at the girl.

“Do it.” She shakes her head. “Just do it. It would be easier this way.” Clint lowers his weapon, placing the arrow back in his quiver. A look of shame on his face as he sees the weeping girl.

Clint slings his bow over his shoulder and leaves the girl on the floor. Pegs rolls over to the girl and beeps to comfort her. Mara looks up at the bot and smiles slightly before covering her face with her knees again. Pegs uses it’s claw to stroke the top of the girl’s head.

The doors to the lab slide open again and Tony coughs to catch the girl’s attention. “What is that?” He asks.

The girl looks up in confusion, but he gestures towards her robot. “Oh.” She wipes her eyes. “That is Pegs.”

“Pegs?” Tony asks while staring at the robot. Pegs beeps in response and rolls towards Tony. “Um. Hello.” Pegs chirps in excitement and reaches it’s claw out to Tony. Tony pats the bot on its claw. “Impressive. You should see my robot, Dum-E.”

“Why? You want me to update him?” She giggles as she dries her cheeks with her shirt collar. 

“Funny. Your friend here is pretty impressive. How long did it take you to make it?” 

“With the limited equipment in this lab, I’d say about an hour.” 

Tony hums as he studies Pegs. The bot spins in circles and chirps in excitement. “And what is that?” He asks as he points to what is left of the radio.

Mara looks down at her hands, “A radio. Well it was. Clint blew it up.”

“So, that is the explosion I heard." Tony nods. "Why did he do it?”

“He thought I was trying to report back to some evil spy agency or something.”

“Well, what were you doing?”

She sighs, “Trying to see if I could contact my brother.”

“Where is he?”

“Uh. I have no clue.”

“Hm. Well I would help you fix it and find him, but I don’t trust you either. Especially not now that I know you can build weapons.” He gestures towards Pegs.

She raises an eyebrow, “Trust me, Dum-E is more of a safety hazard than Pegs.”

“Thing is, I don’t trust you.” He says as he starts to walk away, “One wrong move Pegs and I will have my robot tear you into pieces.” He waves goodbye as he walks out of the glass doors.

Pegs beep and lowers his claw. “Don’t listen to him Pegs. He’s just jealous.” She stands up and pets the top of it’s claw. “I’ll be back soon buddy.”

*****

As Mara walks through the hallway she hears Vision and Wanda around the corner. She hurries passed the kitchen and into the living room, trying not to bother Wanda. “Ms. Mara.” Vision greets as they take a seat next to her. Mara smiles at them hesitantly, but feels relieved when Wanda smiles back genuinely. “Would it be okay if we turned on the television? Our favorite soap opera is about to begin.” Mara giggles before gesturing for them to go ahead. “Oh, I will get the drinks and popcorn.” Vision stands and glides into the kitchen.

Wanda shakes her head and laughs. “You’re floating instead of walking Vision.” He smiles from the other side of the counter, continuing to collect the snacks. “He wants me to remind him of these things constantly. I don’t understand why. It isn’t like everyone here is completely human.” She pauses. “I would like to talk to you alone sometime.”

Mara shifts in her seat, “Yeah. Okay.” Wanda smiles at her, then at Vision as he places the popcorn on the table and hands the two girls drinks. 

As the soap opera begins, Mara finds herself watching Wanda and Vision instead of the television. Wanda laughs loudly at the cheesy jokes and terrible acting. Vision watches her intently, smiling when she laughs. “You’re not watching.” Wanda giggles as she leans closer to Vision. He smiles at her then turns to look at the TV, waiting for her to get lost in it so he could watch her again. Mara smiles at the sight, but her face falls as she thinks about her timeline and how Vision isn’t in it.

When the show finishes, Wanda smiles at Mara. “How was it?” She asks.

Mara hesitates to answer since she didn’t pay much attention to it. “It was okay I guess.”

“Okay?” Wanda giggles. “It was awful! That is why we watch it every week.”

Vision nods in agreement, “The predictability mixed with the over dramatic acting really keeps you drawn in. It shouldn’t, but it does.”

“Alright, Mara. Vis and I are going to go out for a while. If you’d like you can go to my floor and shower in a nicer bathroom, borrow some clothes, or read one of my books. I do not mind. What is mine is yours.” Wanda says as she takes Vision’s hand in hers. 

Mara smiles brightly before nodding, “Thank you Wanda. Really, thank you.” 

*****

Mara takes up Wanda’s offer and spends the rest of the day on Wanda’s floor. She marvels at how similar it is to the one back home, but how it differs without Pietro there to share the space. She walks into Wanda’s bedroom and smiles at the picture of Pietro and Wanda at a protest. “Oh, how I miss you, Petrie.” The girl whispers as she runs her hand over the picture. 

She spots Wanda’s bookshelf and picks a book she doesn’t remember ever seeing, before throwing herself on Wanda’s bed and eventually falling asleep.

*****

Clint, Natasha, Bruce, Sam, Tony, and Steve gather in the living room. “What are we going to do about the girl?” Steve questions as Tony turns on the television.

“Sounds like a Tony problem.” Clint says, stealing the remote from Tony’s hands and flipping through the channels.

“I think we need to try to help her.” Natasha says and Sam nods in agreement. 

“Whenever I am near Mara, I feel extremely tense. I think the other guy is trying to get to her.” Bruce speaks up.

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Sam questions.

“I don’t know.” Bruce admits. 

“Where is she, anyways? Maybe we can test that.” Tony says. “F.R.I.D.A.Y. Where is the little monster?” 

“She is in a restricted area. Would you like to override the security lock?” The AI responds and everyone sits up in worry.

“Yes, now F.R.I.D.A.Y.!” Tony shouts as everyone waits to see what the girl is up to. A hologram pops up in front of them, showing Mara in Wanda’s room. She is lying on her stomach with her feet crossed and her elbows propped up. She holds the book she’s reading and stares at the words like she is in a trance. Hey pupils are dilated and her lips are curved up in a smirk. She turns her page and shifts slightly.

“You guys need to stop worrying. Just look at her! I doubt she could even hurt a fly.” Sam says as the others focus on the image in front of them. Natasha smiles slightly before looking down at her hands. Tony stands and walks out of the room. The others look away as Steve swipes away the hologram and sits back down on the couch. 

*****

Wanda enters her room and smiles when she sees the girl asleep on a book. She grabs the blanket at the edge of her bed and goes to cover the girl. Mara opens her eyes slightly and smiles at Wanda, “this book was pretty good.”

“Did you read the whole thing?”

Mara giggles softly, “yeah, but then I fell asleep.”

“That’s okay. Just go back to sleep.”

“No, no.” Mara says as she sits up. “It’s okay, I’ll go back upstairs.”

"Go to sleep." Wanda insists, but the girl gets out of the bed and goes to walk out of Wanda's room. "Wait." Mara turns towards Wanda. Wanda moves to her slowly before hugging the girl tightly. "Get some sleep. We will figure everything out."

Mara forces herself to smile, "Wanda, please. Don't lie. You never lied to spare my feelings before. Please don't start now." She moves to the door again.

Wanda nods and sits on her bed, watching the girl leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Clint isn't an asshole; he has his reasons and that is something Mara understands since no one knows them better than her.
> 
> Here is the link to her 'In the Lab' playlist. It mostly songs she would get from her dad, but adding her own occasionally.  
> https://open.spotify.com/user/findingflorida/playlist/0770kztlZn5ZBfGdaomaOa?si=wPd9oYaDSwmxBG-prKVrUw


	3. Catch-22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 3: Tony's daughter just might be smarter than him.
> 
> The Winter Soldier may be the key to breaking the curse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's my third chapter. I ended up involving Wanda way more than I originally intended, but hopefully you all like it.

Mara sits in the corner of the guest room, staring at the ceiling. 

“Ms. Mara, are you going to sit like that all day?” F.R.I.D.A.Y. asks worryingly. 

“Wanda said she wanted to talk to me.” Mara states.

“That is what you have been thinking of for the last eight hours instead of sleeping?”

“I’ve been thinking about a lot of things.”

“Well Ms. Maximoff just entered the kitchen for breakfast. She is alone if you’d like to talk to her.”

Mara sighs loudly and nods, “Better now than later, right F.R.I.D.A.Y.?” She stands and slowly makes her way down the hall. Wanda smiles when Mara walks in.

“Would you like some Serbian cheese pie?”

“Burek Sa Sirom?” Mara stands next to Wanda as she removes the food from the oven pan and places it on two plates. “Yummy.” 

“The others don’t try my food.” Wanda says as she hands Mara her plate and sits down.

“How ‘bout Vis?” Mara asks, stuffing a piece of the pie in her mouth before she even takes a seat. 

Wanda looks at her disapprovingly before laughing softly, “he would try anything I ask him to, but we found pretty early that he isn’t able to digest it and the food causes him discomfort.”

Mara nods in acknowledgment, “when my parents were trying to get Peter to try new things so he won't grow up to be picky, they had to eat everything also. They tried your food and ended up loving it. You would cook once a week because my brother and I loved your food. Everyone else realized they loved it once they tried it.”

The girls continue to eat in silence. Once Mara finishes and makes a loud approving noise, Wanda speaks up, “I need you to understand that I will do anything to be able to see my brother again.” Wanda waits for acknowledgement, so Mara nods. “But I also understand that without Ultron, Vision would not be here. I just-.” She takes a deep breath in and then exhales. “I feel bad for him.”

“I understand.” Mara replies. She takes the used dishes and begins to wash them. Wanda smiles at her and leaves the kitchen. 

*****

Mara runs through the hallway and frantically enters the communal library. She skims through the titles on the shelf's, ignoring the shelf's she can’t reach. She occasionally picks out a book and places it on a stand in the room.

“Is there something you were looking for Ms. Mara?” F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s voice echoes around the large room. 

“Any newer publications. Biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, body modification. Oh! And anything regarding the beginning of time. You know? Like history on Thor or something.” The girl glances over at the huge stacks of books. “Send Pegs over also, I’ll need some help.”

“Of course, Ms. Mara. I have printed a list of books which may be of help.” The AI says.

Mara walks over to the printer and reads through the list of books. “You know F.R.I.D.A.Y., back home when I needed a book, J.A.R.V.I.S. was able to make the books glow for me.”

“No, I did not know.” F.R.I.D.A.Y. responds.

“It is an expression.” Mara explains. “Thank you for the list.” Mara turns to the door as Pegs rolls in. The robot beeps in displeasure as it looks over the growing stack of books. “Don’t give me that look.” Mara says as she takes five books and places it on the dolly platform that Pegs was built around. “Take them to the lab, buddy. It is for a good cause.”

After Pegs helps her move 50 books into the lab, Mara separates them into categories. “F.R.I.D.A.Y. Would you be able to help me pick out what I need from the books?”

“Sorry Ms. Mara, I’m not entirely sure what you mean by that.”

Mara sighs, “that is alright. If anyone is looking for me just tell them I’m busy.” She pauses as she thinks for a second. “Oh, and tell them not to worry because I’m not secretly planning to kill them. If Tony gets antsy, just tell him I love him. I think that will make him leave me alone.” 

“What exactly are you doing?” F.R.I.D.A.Y. questions.

“Trying to find a way to make Wanda happy.” Mara responds as she picks up her first book and begins to read.

*****

“F.R.I.D.A.Y. Report on the little monster.” Tony requests aloud.

“She says she loves you.” The AI states and as suspected, Tony doesn’t ask any more questions. He just shifts on the couch and looks uncomfortable.

Clint huffs, “I can’t believe you are really going to let her play you like that.”

Tony rolls his eyes, “how come you’ve been spending so much time up here lately? You say you hate the kid, but it isn’t like you have tried avoiding her.”

“I could say the same about you.” Clint states and the two drop the conversation.

*****

Mara lets out a sigh of relief as she closes the 50th book. F.R.I.D.A.Y. finally speaks, “are you done finding what you need Ms. Mara?”  
Mara laughs and Pegs lifts his claw, surprised by the sudden outburst. “Oh, I’m just getting started.” She says as she stands up and takes a seat in front of the lab’s computer. “Can you tell me what you know about Vision’s birth?”

“Well, Ms. Mara. You must understand that humans are born when two people get together and make -.” 

Mara groans loudly and covers her ears. “One, I already know how babies are made. Two, that isn’t exactly how my brother and I were made. And three, what does that have to do with Vision?”

“I was going to explain that Vision was not made like you or Mr. Stark or Ms. Maximoff, for example. He was created in the Regeneration Cradle. Then brought to consciousness by the Mind Stone.”

“Regeneration Cradle?” Mara giggles. “My aunt Helen used to make all my dolls with that thing.” She giggles again at the thought. “Alright, I’m going to do some of my own research, but would you be able to pull up whatever information you have on the Cradle?”

“Of course, Ms. Mara.”

*****

“F.R.I.D.A.Y., what time is it?”

“It is 10 p.m. And it is also 23 hours since you have slept.”

“Please stop monitoring my sleep, I have people back home for that.” Mara groans. She stretches her arms and her back before running through her notes once more. “I think I got it!” She squeals loudly before running to the door. She stops abruptly, “where is Wanda?”

“Ms. Maximoff is in the kitchen with Mr. Banner and Mr. Stark.” F.R.I.D.A.Y. states. Mara hesitates by the door before walking over to Pegs and petting it’s claw. “Is there something wrong Ms. Mara?”

“Um. No.” Mara says as she continues to pet Pegs. “I just don’t want to bother Mr. Banner and Mr. Stark.” She sighs before placing a kiss on Pegs claw. The robot beeps and spins in a circle and Mara laughs. “Okay buddy. If I don’t come back make sure F.R.I.D.A.Y. protects you.”

Mara hesitantly enters the kitchen; her excitement having diminished as she walked through the hallway. “Wanda can we talk?”

Wanda nods with a concerned look on her face. “Is there something wrong?”

“No, I just had some news.”

Tony looks at the two and states, “I hope you were planning on announcing it out loud because if you weren’t, that may a great reason for us to be suspicious of you.”

Mara blushes before nodding and sitting next to Wanda. “I think I would be able to recreate Vision if we were put back in my timeline.” She smiles shyly.

Tony chokes on his drink as he tried to not do a spit take. He then laughs loudly, “sure you can. It isn’t like it took Ultron and Dr. Cho hours to build the body, Bruce and I’s brain to put J.A.R.V.I.S. in the body, and Thor’s lightning to power the body.”

Bruce rolls his eyes at Tony before turning to Mara, “how exactly do you plan on doing that?” 

“Well the Regeneration Cradle was destroyed after these aliens from Pluto attacked earth. But, I believe Helen would be more than happy to help me recreate it. Then combining the artificial tissue made by the Cradle and the right amount of Vibranium, we could recreate Vision’s synthetic body. Then we could reconfigure J.A.R.V.I.S.’s matrix and upload it into the body. It would take an hour at most once the Cradle is finished.”

“When did you become an expert in bio-metrics?” Bruce questions.

Mara looks up at him and smiles, “yesterday.”

Tony laughs at her response. Shaking his head at how ridiculous it was. “And where do you plan on getting the vibranium? I doubt Cap would let you use his shield.”

“Shuri gives me some every year for my birthday.”

“What?” Bruce raises an eyebrow.

“Shuri, princess of Wakanda and T’Challa’s sister. T’Challa, the Black Panther and the king of Wakanda.” She states like that is obvious.

“The Black Panther?” Bruce now scrunches his eyebrows.

“How about the Mind Stone? Where do you plan on getting that?” Tony interrupts. 

Mara laughs and rolls her eyes, “it is at our tower. Thor gave it to me for my 14th birthday since he always likes to one-up people.”

Tony continues shaking his head at everything the girl says. 

“So, we can recreate Vis?” Wanda smiles, hope flickering in her eyes.

“Yeah that shouldn’t be a problem. It would just take some time for you two to build a relationship since he would be born all over again. But, I’m assuming you would also not remember, so it would just be like meeting again.” Mara replies.

“So. Let me get this straight. You want me to believe some high school kid-.” Tony starts.

“I’m in college.” Mara cuts him off.

“-Was able to pull all this information out of her ass-.” Tony continues.

“I read through some books in the library and found articles on the Cornell website.” Mara explains

“-And then was able to magically figure out how to recreate Vision. F.R.I.D.A.Y. didn’t just tell you everything?” 

F.R.I.D.A.Y. interrupts, “sir, she truly figured this out herself.”

“What do you mean you’re in college?” Bruce interrupts. 

“I’m on my fifth semester at Cornell. I’m majoring in Chemical biology. Double minoring in inequality studies and cognitive science.” Mara smiles proudly. Tony and Bruce give her confused looks, so she explains, “T’Challa says you can’t help those who are less fortunate than you if you don’t educate yourself on the power structure in your society.”

“Okay…” Tony netted his eyebrows in confusion. “Let’s say you go to Cornell, you wouldn’t have an account yet to get in to do this _research_.” Tony says gesturing air-quotes. 

“Websites are meant to be hacked.” She responds, leaning back in her chair and putting her feet on the table. 

Tony huffs in annoyance, “I don’t know if you realize this or not, but everything you say only proves that you shouldn’t be trusted!”

“Natasha, Sam, and Wanda trust me.” Mara states confidently. 

“Funny thing is, they are the three I trust least.” Tony rolls his eyes. Wanda shoots him a warning look, but he just shrugs his shoulders. 

Steve enters the kitchen and Mara unconsciously takes her feet off the table earning herself a confused look from him.

“Capsicle, the tiny spy here has figured out how to recreate Vision. Tomorrow she’ll make enough of that serum they injected into you to make an army of super soldiers and then use Gamma Radiation to make a team of Hulks.” Tony mocks.

“You know how to recreate Vision?” Steve questions skeptically. 

“Well, I have an idea on how to recreate him. It isn’t full-proof.” She replies dubiously.

“No, it will work. Just another reason to be suspicious of her.” Tony replies.

Steve shoots Tony a cautionary glance before speaking again, “we will deal with this later. I came in here to say Fury is calling us on a mission.” He directs his words towards Wanda and Bruce.

“Ooh. Fun!” Tony gets up from his seat and calls for his suit. “What are we up against?” He asks excitedly. 

“You’re staying here. Rotations remember?”

“No fucking way!” Tony shouts.

“Language.” Steve warns as Bruce and Wanda follow him out of the kitchen. 

“You’re not leaving me here with her. Not alone!” Tony shouts after them, but they ignore him as the others meet them by the elevator. 

“Good luck.” Wanda calls out.

“Yeah, thanks I’ll need it!” Tony shouts back.

“I was talking to Mara.” Wanda says as the elevator door closes.

Tony walks back into the kitchen, taking the furthest seat from Mara. He gives her a disbelieving look and she smiles back at him. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“I’m not that bad.” Mara whines.

“I just do not like children, especially little spy children.” Tony replies.

Mara rolls her eyes, “I wouldn’t mind you handing me off to someone else for the day. Rhodey is Peter’s godfather. Would I be able to see him?”

“Nope. Nuh-uh kid. You see no one besides who’s already here. Don’t need you messing with more people’s heads.”

And as he finishes his sentence the elevator door opens. The girl’s face lights up and she almost jumps off her chair, but realizes that wouldn’t be the right thing to do.

“Look who it is, the Winter Soldier.” Tony rolls his eyes. “I’m pretty sure you pop up at all the right times in spite of me.” Tony rushes out of his chair, bumping Bucky’s shoulder as he goes through the kitchen door and out into the hallway.

Bucky seems unbothered as he takes a seat next to the girl. “Hello.” He says just loud enough for her to hear. A smile stretches across her face causing the corner of her eyes to crease, but she looks away embarrassed by her reaction. “I’m sorry if I don’t remember you.” She turns to look at him again and her eyebrow twitches from her confusion. “If we met before.” He clarifies.

“Not in this life.” She laughs at herself. Bucky just glances over at her nonchalantly. She wants to speak and tell him everything, knowing in this timeline there’s no way he’s back to being himself yet. If she were to speak he would listen and decide that she’s probably right, but the words won’t come out. She gets a guilty feeling in her gut; Bucky isn’t just some pawn. “I’m going to go. It is getting kind of late.” She says as she walks away from him.

“Have a nice night.” He nods at her. She walks out of sight but then runs to the guest room, throwing herself on the bed and sighing loudly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you.


	4. This Ain't A Scene, It's Me Trying to Get My G*d Damn Life Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 4: Mara spends some time with her parents (separately).
> 
> She knew Tony dated Pepper before the marriage, but that doesn't make seeing them together hurt any less.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [When I indicate that they are speaking Russian, the italics are Russian and the normal font is English]
> 
> This is one of the first chapters I actually wrote and I was very excited about it, so I hope you like it.

“What do you think F.R.I.D.A.Y.?” Mara questions as she rolls out of bed. “Should I wear ‘Sorry for being late. I was enjoying the last minutes of not being here’ or ‘I heart NY’? Mara picks out the two t-shirts from her bag, waiting for the AI’s response.

“The first one sounds more like Mr. Stark; however, you may not want to sound rude.”

“The first one it is!” Mara laughs as she carries her outfit out of the room and heads to the gym showers. “Hey, where is Bucky?”

“Mr. Barnes is asleep in Mr. Rogers' room.”

Mara stops in place as her mouth hangs open. “Excuse me?”

“Mr. Barnes does not have his own floor. He sleeps on Mr. Rogers’ floor when he is over.”

“And they sleep _together_?”

“No. Mr. Rogers sleeps in the guest room. I believe he said he doesn’t enjoy being hit by Mr. Barnes’ metal arm.” The A.I. informs Mara. Mara still has a perplexed look on her face, thinking of her dad sleeping with her uncle. “Are you alright Ms. Mara? Your vital signs have elevated slightly.”

“I just. Maybe I need to sleep more.” Mara replies.

“That is a fact.” The AI mocks, causing Mara to roll her eyes.

“Okay, how about you just tell me when Bucky comes back on this floor.”

“It seems as if Mr. Rogers has joined Mr. Barnes.” Mara’s face turns a bright red as she stops in front of the showers. “False alarm.” The AI replies.

Mara looks up towards the ceiling and nods her head, “You’re funny F.R.I.D.A.Y. Thanks for that.” 

*****

Before Mara finishes showering and brushing her teeth (with who’s ever toothbrush she’s been using), F.R.I.D.A.Y. announces that Bucky has entered the kitchen. Mara is quick to finish up, leaving her hair slightly damp as she speeds into the kitchen and takes a seat next to her uncle.

She takes a sharp breath in before realizing she only has one choice: she can use Bucky since his life is affected by all this too. “In the last months of 2014, Tony Stark created Ultron setting everything in motion until we got you and me sitting here in 2015. Well, let’s say hypothetically speaking there’s a timeline or another dimension that instead of Ultron working, it fails miserably and everyone kind of forgets about it. Tony focuses more on missions with the avengers. Tony falls in love somewhere between 2014 and 2016, getting married in the summer of 2016. They have two children and raise them in the newly built avengers’ tower along with the rest of the avengers. The morning of their daughter’s 15th birthday, a past foe curses the girl. The witch, who goes by the name Hecate, tells the young girl that she has 10 days to get both of her parents to remember her or else that timeli- that dimension is erased and everyone is stuck in the miserable, wrecked dimension. 4 days later, the young girl takes a sip of her sprite,” she says as she raises her cup to her lips and gulps loudly. “ _Ahhh_. Sitting next to an uncharacteristically dry version of her godfather.”

“So, hypothetically speaking of course-.” Bucky says glancing over at the girl, then returning his eyes to his cup of coffee. “If the uncharacteristically dry version of her godfather were to believe her, would that help at all?”  
She chokes on her drink and places it a little too hard on the table. Her pupils are dilated and her lower lip shakes, “do you believe me?” 

“What? You being Tony Stark’s spawn from a weird dimension and then being thrown here having to fulfill some sort of act of true love or else you are forever cursed?” He shrugs nonchalantly. “I’ve seen some crazy stuff in this century.” She cringes at the word 'spawn'. 

“Never this crazy I bet. Jerk.” She smiles.

He stares at her hesitantly, but realizes she isn’t being malicious. “Steve called me that before.” She nods in acknowledgement. His lips curl up just enough to make her giggle but she stops when he gives her a confused look. “If you’re Stark’s kid, how am I your godfather?”  
She shrugs at his question before explaining, “I don’t know if I’m allowed to say that much.” She sighs. “I’m going to miss you Buck.” Tears form in her eyes. 

They sit there quietly for a couple of minutes before she speaks again. “Your arm is so much cooler in the other dimension.” She begins to laugh.

“Punk.” He says as he taps her with his metal arm. Her eyes go wide as she falls off her seat and he quickly goes to grab her, but falls next to her instead. They remain on the floor and laugh together. 

Steve walks in and smiles at the pair before grabbing food out of the fridge. “I see that you’ve met Bucky.” He says with his back turned to them. Bucky stands first and pulls the girl to her feet. They hum in response.

Mara watches Steve prepare his meal. Her big brown eyes sparkle as she stares at him lovingly. She looks over at Bucky when he coughs and begins to speak in Russian. “Nod if you understand me.” Mara looks away from him, staring straight forward. She pretends she didn’t hear him as she fiddles with her cup. “My best friend had never really been into the whole dating thing. He was so focused on finding the right partner.” Bucky sighs. 

Steve looks between the two, “are you talking to me, Buck? I don’t speak Russian.”

Mara giggles as Bucky shakes his head and continues speaking, “Did he find what he was looking for?” Mara’s eyes go wide as she begins to cough a bit. Steve makes his way around the table but she lifts her hand to signal to him that she is okay. Bucky smiles to himself, “who would have thought? Howard Stark’s son.” He shakes his head in disbelief. 

Steve looks up again, “what about Howard?” He glances between the two, completely lost. Mara smiles at her dad and then turns to Bucky. "Don't bring him up near Tony." Steve warns. 

“So, what do you call them just so we are on the same page?” Bucky whispers.

“Tony is papi or father.” She sneaks a glance at Steve, so she doesn’t have to say his name. “The other is daddy or dad.”

“I understood some of those words.” Steve says as he points his spatula towards the two. They both laugh as he turns back to the stove.

Mara stands and approaches Steve, propping herself up to sit on the counter. “Mr. Rogers.”

“Yes?” Steve looks over at the girl and shakes his head. “Off of the counter. People put food there.” 

She jumps onto the ground and huffs when he glares at her disapprovingly. “It isn’t that big of a deal.” She whines.

“Don’t talk back to me. Clean the area.” Steve orders. Bucky laughs from his seat and Mara can’t help but join him. “I’m serious.” Mara smiles slightly as she starts to clean the area she was sitting on. “Clean the table while you are at it.” Mara slumps her shoulders, but Steve doesn’t budge. “Nope. You’re going to learn to follow directions if you are staying in this house.”

Bucky laughs again and speaks in English, “what a dad.”

Steve ignores him, watching Mara clean the kitchen island. “See that wasn’t so hard. Thank you.” Steve says. Mara throws away the Clorox wipe she used and approaches Steve again, wrapping her arms around his torso and leaning her head into his left side. “Um.” Steve says as he awkwardly places his arm on the girl’s shoulder.

She releases him after a minute and looks over at Bucky who is smiling brightly. She smiles back at him awkwardly and walks out of the kitchen with her head down.

*****

Mara sits in the corner of the conference room, holding a tiny notebook she found. She has “The Night We Met” on repeat as she sketches her favorite picture of her parents. “F.R.I.D.A.Y. do you think Tony will ever accept me as his daughter?”

“I’m afraid I cannot predict whether or not he will.”

Mara wipes her cheeks after a tear drop splashed onto her drawing. “Awh man,” she says defeated as she smudges the drawing. She drops her notebook on the floor and stands as she hears loud laughter from down the hall. “F.R.I.D.A.Y. what is happening?”

“The avengers and Ms. Potts have gathered in the kitchen.”

Mara smiles as she heads for the door, “Pepper is here?”

“Ms. Mara, I suggest you do not leave the room.”

“You sound like Tony.” Mara rolls her eyes as she continues down the hall. She stops by the doorway as she sees Pepper and Tony sitting close. Her stomach twists and a frown forms on her face as she watches the two stare at each other lovingly. 

Pepper whispers something in Tony’s ear, causing Tony’s eyes to open wide. He giggles and then leans in, placing a kiss to her lips. “Papi? Why are you kissing aunt Pepper?” Mara says, earning everyone's attention. 

“Papi? Papi?” Pepper’s eyes are wide as she grabs a hold of Tony’s collar. “As in father? Tony? You couldn’t tell me you had a kid the moment you found out?” Tony shoots a death glare Mara’s way as she fully steps into the kitchen. 

“I’m actually not supposed to be alive yet.” She gives Pepper a dirty look before crossing her arms. “In the future Tony falls in love and has me and my brother, Peter.” Tears form in her eyes as she realizes she shouldn’t be mean to her aunt; she just hates the idea of her father with someone else.

“She’s a nut, Pepper. Don’t listen to her. See everyone else on the team is getting manipulated by her. She came with one mission and that was to ruin everyone’s life.”

“Who are you really?” Pepper lets go of Tony and makes her way towards Mara.

“I’m Tony’s daughter from another dimension.”

“Even if that was true, Pepper, she doesn’t matter in this dimension.” Tony tries to take Pepper’s attention away from the girl, but Pepper looks her up-and-down. 

Pepper clicks her tongue before speaking again, “She looks just like you Tony!” Pepper turns back to the table, finally acknowledging everyone else. “And everyone here believes her?” Tony shakes his head and looks betrayed as Natasha, Wanda, Sam, and Bucky nod. Pepper stops yelling, but tears continue running down her cheeks. She doesn’t turn back to the girl when she speaks, “I’ve seen so many things, I’ve been infected with that alien chemical Extremis, and it seems like I’ve escaped death too many times. It would be unreasonable for me to not at least listen to what you have to say. No matter how crazy it is.”

“This dimension isn’t the original, it was created as a curse. The real dimension and this one take different turns in 2014 when Tony started the Ultron project. In the real one, Ultron fails and you break up with Tony because he spends too much time with my other parent.” Mara looks away from her crying aunt. “But you guys still love each other and you’re even my godmother.” Mara offers but Pepper scoffs. She takes one look at Tony before nodding and walking to the elevator. 

“Pepper! Are you really going to believe that nonsense? I could never love someone else!” Tony shouts as he runs over to the closing elevator door. Pepper forces herself to smile as the door closes. Tony stands in front of the door and puts his hands on his head. “Pepper?” He whispers. 

“Papi?” Mara whispers behind him. Tony turns around slowly, looking down with a completely blank expression. She takes a step back as he tilts his head to study her. 

“Don’t call me that.” He looks at her resentfully. She bows her head, taking two more steps back. “Banner said I am biologically your father so I guess I am. But I will never be your papi or your dad or your pops or whatever stupid name you want to call me. I want you out of the tower now. Just because everyone else lives here doesn’t mean they get a say in what happens with my tower. I’m sorry that I knocked your mother up or whatever you claim. I’m sorry that you’re either delusional or are extremely unlucky and got cursed by some witch, but that doesn’t mean you can come in here and mess with our lives. Pepper just left me and I don’t think there’s anything I can do to get her back and that’s on you.”

“But-.” “No, this is where you zip it. The adult is talking. You came here and you ruined my life. I owe you nothing.” A flash of sympathy shows on his face as he realizes everyone is still watching, but he turns to go to the elevator. 

“No!” She shouts, causing him to stop in place. “You told me the only thing keeping your from having kids was the fact that your enemies will target them to get to you. But you were so head-over-heels and ready to start a family that you decided to risk it. You said you would protect me from anyone who targets me to get to you. You promised to protect me! But what’s happening now? You pissed off the wrong villain and now she’s attacking me, dad! She’s attacking _me_!” She turns to walk away, but chooses to stand her ground. “I don’t know how any of this works, okay? I don’t know what she did to make Ultron work and I don’t know how she changed the sequence of events that led up to this, but no matter how much she manipulated you, you were the one to start Ultron. And this is your fault. The team is dying because of you!” The girl shouts, moving closer and closer to her father until she’s a foot away. She’s fuming and can’t help that her hand raises itself and slaps her father across the face.

She’s tugged back aggressively, not having realized Steve had gotten close enough to them. He turns Mara to face him, taking a tight hold to both of her wrists. “Don’t touch me da-.” Her body shutters just like Tony’s did when she first said he was her father. Her knees look as if they were going to give out from under her. Steve releases his grip on her, but she remains standing like a deer in headlights. After a minute, she seems to snap back into reality, turning back towards Tony. 

She takes a deep breath in, “My first word was Tony.” She forces an awkward laugh. “I think you are one of the most wonderful people in the entire world.” She smiles, and it is genuine as she thinks about the man who raised her. “I’m sorry I can’t make you believe me. You always trusted me and now I’m letting you down when you need me most.” The tears begin to stream down her face again as she glances over at her family sitting around the table. She stands between her parents and continues talking. “It’s my 4th day here so I promise I’ll be out of your hair soon.” She looks down at her toes shyly. “This is going to sound so stupid, but I would like for you to allow me to stay at the tower until my last day. I promise I won’t bother anyone who doesn’t want to be near me. I’ll have your new AI warn you guys of my incoming presence.” She looks back up at Tony who doesn’t respond before she turns to sprint into the conference room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mara was listening to The Night We Met by Lord Huron 
> 
>  
> 
> This upcoming week I have 3 exams, a head-to-toe physical exam for my nursing lab, 15 hours of work, and a required 4 hours of "study time" (signed by a peer-mentor), but I'm hoping to update no later than Monday night (2/12).


	5. Beauty and the Beast and Gaston

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 5: Mara comes in contact with the Hulk. 
> 
> Apparently Tony & Steve were overly protective parents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for being here. 
> 
> Fun fact: My college roommate's last name is Stark.

Mara wakes up to the sound of an alarm ringing through the tower. She rolls off the bed and hits the ground. “I’m up! I’m up!” She looks around, rubbing her elbow that she fell on. “Who the heck keeps bringing me in here?” she says before realizing the alarm was the avengers’ mission alarm. She frantically gets up and takes a second to steady herself, feeling light headed. She runs to the elevator.

“Where are you going?” She hears Natasha say from the living room. She follows her voice and sees the girl’s head from the other side of the couch. 

“Why are you sitting on the floor?” Mara counters.

“I was waiting for you. Where are you going?” Natasha repeats her question.

“I was just trying to see where everyone was.” She looks back towards the elevator. “Why didn’t you go with?”

“Tony said someone has to watch you. Maybe he’s starting to look out for you.”

“He just doesn’t trust me. I might steal or break something.” She says rolling her eyes.

“Come sit.” Natasha pats the ground next to the her for the girl to sit on. “I want to ask you a few questions.”

Mara sits hesitantly, crossing her legs like Natasha. “Sure, what would you like to know?”

Natasha begins her interrogation, “I want to know who your other parent is.”

“Um. I don’t think-.” Mara drags out her words.

“It is an avenger?” Mara gulps, quickly becoming uncomfortable. “A current one?” Natasha asks, causing Mara to cross her arms over her chest. “I’m going to assume it isn’t Wanda.” Natasha pauses as the girl’s face scrunches up in disgust. “No one else can give birth to a child.” Mara shifts herself to bring her knees to her chest. “You were born by a surrogate?”

“Yes.”

Natasha nods and continues to study the girl’s face. “You move as much as Tony. The witches name?”

“Hecate.”

Natasha smirks. “We killed her dog.”

“So, she told me. Thanks for that by the way.” Mara tries to keep a straight face, but can’t help but smile. 

“I don’t think your other parent is me since you keep calling me aunt.” Natasha looks around to make sure no one else is there. “Do I end up with Banner?” The girl nods and Natasha smiles. Mara knows that means she is more than ecstatic. “Do we adopt any kids?”

Mara shakes her head and if Natasha was upset her face doesn’t give anything away. “You said you have to be ready to take custody of me and Peter if something happens to my parents.” Mara smiles and Natasha smiles back. 

“How about you go cleanup and maybe we can watch a movie.” Natasha says as she stands and heads to the elevator. 

*****

Mara walks out of the gym showers, toweling her hair off. She stops in place when a green light flashes from the ceiling. She drops her towel and runs to the living room to see outside the glass windows. Pressing her face against the glass, she can see Steve and Bucky sprinting towards the building from more than a block away, the Hulk trailing not too far behind. She hears the elevator going down so she runs to the stairs instead, running faster than she ever has before. 

She slams open the stairwell door and runs out the huge glass doors on the first floor. Steve comes into view, shouting at her the moment he sees her. “You’re going to want to get out of the way kid!” 

Natasha runs out of the same doors and tenses as she sees the Hulk behind Steve and Bucky. “Mara, you shouldn’t have come down here.” She says worryingly. Steve and Bucky take a stance in front of Mara, allowing Natasha to slowly approach the Hulk. “Hey.” Natasha says to him. That slows him down but he still makes loud roars. Mara begins to walk to them when Steve warns her to back up. 

A huge smile appears on her face. “Hey there big guy.” She stops to stand five feet from him. He leans down towards her, growling softly. “I’m not scared of you, you big teddy bear.” She jumps up, wrapping an arm around his neck. He backs away and his body tenses slightly, but she wraps her other hand around his neck and holds on tightly. He stops growling and she giggles. 

He brings a hand up to her back, securing her in place. She lightly pats his shoulder and he chuckles in response, causing a vibration to flow through his chest. Mara laughs at the sensation causing Hulk to laugh louder. “Tiny Tony.” He says as her runs his thumb over the back of her head.

He begins to calm down and shrink to his human form, still holding her to his chest. She lands on her feet and Bruce gives her a puzzled look. She takes a step back and scratches the back of her neck. “Sorry.” She says, avoiding eye contact with the shirtless man. 

*****

“You were being absolutely reckless!” Tony lectures Mara. “You could not have known how he would react! You could have gotten yourself killed!” 

“Tony, I think you should be a little easier on her.” Steve interjects.

“This has nothing to do with you! Wait, actually it does! You and Bucky and Natasha just let her approach him. She could have been killed and who’s fault would that have been?”

“She wasn’t.” Natasha defends herself and the others.

“But she could have been!” Tony bites.

“You’re wrong! Hulk would never harm a child!” Mara whines. 

“Shut up!” Tony shouts.

“Tony.” Steve warns as he steps in front of Tony. 

“Steve, I’m getting real tired of you constantly getting into my business!” Tony says as he gets so close to Steve that their shoes are touching. 

“Stop shouting.” Steve states calmly. 

“I will shout as much as I want! You know why? Because this is my tower!” Tony says, gesturing around the room. 

“Don’t yell in front of the kid!” Steve begins to fume. 

“She shouldn’t even be here!” Tony says staring down Steve. 

“You’re lucky you have a kid!” Steve blushes as the words slip from his lips.

“You can have her!” Tony looks over at Mara, immediately regretting what he said. “Why are you shutting your eyes like that?” He asks the girl. 

“Sometimes you say things you don’t mean.” She places her hands on the table, keeping her eyes shut. “When I was 7 and Peter just turned 5, you said something so mean that Peter tried to leave. I wasn’t going to let him leave by himself, but I knew Peter would never forgive you if you said anything worse. I went with him so we can give you time to cool off. I was trying to get him to the Statue of Liberty. I thought I could show him the statue and remind him that you were just stressed because you dedicate your life to helping the people that the statue stands for.” She forces herself to smile. 

“We didn’t make it close enough though, because a huge scary monster appeared out of nowhere. The monster kept throwing things around and stomping on things. Me and Peter ended up trapped under piled cars. He was small enough that it wasn’t squishing him, just trapping him. But-.” As she explains the story her hands move around and her voice sounds like it belongs to someone half her age. “I was getting squished and I couldn’t breath and then I heard Steve and the Hulk. They started moving the stuff off of people and the car piece on top of me shifted and I couldn’t see anything except Steve approaching Peter. I wanted to scream so he could help me, I couldn’t last much longer. But I knew that if I screamed, he wouldn’t have found Peter. I just hoped if only one of us was saved, it would be Peter. Then I heard Steve comforting Peter and I pushed my head up so I can get another breath in. Steve heard me and I was saved.” 

She slowly opened her eyes, blushing when she realized all eyes were on her. Steve leaned over the counter to wipe her cheeks. Tony watched as the girl leaned into Steve’s palm. Natasha rubbed circles on her back, letting her slow her breathing down to normal. He bites his lip and walks out.

*****

Mara wanders out of her room, deciding she probably shouldn’t skip dinner again. She sees Bucky sitting at the counter, watching something on a laptop. He looks up at her briefly and smiles to greet her.

“Hey Bucky.” She says as she climbs on the counter to retrieve a cup from the top shelf of the cabinet. “What are you watching?” She jumps down onto the floor and walks over to the refrigerator. 

“Armageddon.” He continues looking at the screen for a couple seconds before pausing the movie and closing the laptop. “Ever heard of it?”

“Actually, it is… was our favorite movie to watch together.”

“Did we watch a lot of movies together?”

She moves to sit next to him. “Yeah, you and I would watch one movie a week, depending on your schedule.” She pauses as Clint, Natasha, and Bruce walk in. “When I was little, I would sit on your lap while we watched movies, but eventually I was too old and too big so I sat on your side. You made a joke of out of it and decided to sit on me one day. I tried to tickle you and that made your elbow swing back and you broke my nose. That arm was made out of vibranium though.”

“Vibranium? Like Cap’s shield?” Clint asks, finally interested. Sam and Steve join them. 

“Story time?” Steve questions.

The girl nods and continues her stories, loving the attention she’s getting. “Okay, I have a good one. So, I just turned thirteen and Ian Hammer asked me out on a date.”

“Justin Hammer’s kid?” Sam asks, almost falling over his chair in disbelief. The rest of the team just laughs as the girl nods and blushes.

“I know, I know. Anyways, I wasn’t going to go but my parents made it seem like I had no say, so I agreed to go with him. My parents were absolutely furious and convinced that his dad was paying him to seduce me so they can kill Tony. I’m thirteen! I’m not seducible! I don’t know what seduce means! Heck, I still wouldn’t know if Bucky and Sam didn’t take it upon themselves to give me the talk about the birds and the bees.” She pauses as the team laughs over her, smiling at the sight. Her cheeks turn pink again. “So, after Tasha and Clint sneak me out of the house, I finally make it to the theater. We are watching Chaos Walking part 3: Monsters of Men, and I hear this very loud whispering through like the first 10 minutes of the movie. I glance over my shoulder slightly, so I could see who it is but not trying to be rude, and I see my parents throw themselves on the ground. I couldn’t believe it! I get up and -.” 

Their attention is directed towards the hallway when the elevator door opens. Tony and a much younger female enter the kitchen. She is no more than 5’3, with black curls down her back. “Oops. Sorry, wrong floor.” Tony laughs, sounding tipsy as he pulls the woman away from the group and into the elevator.

The team offer Mara sympathetic looks, but she pretends she didn’t see anything. “And-.” She shifts in her seat. “Where was I?” But she can’t stop the tears from forming in her eyes. “Okay, so my parents were about five rows behind us, in their usual “night on the town” disguises and I just start shouting at them. Saying I hate them and that they are always trying to ruin my life. Ian starts crying in his seat because he thinks my parents are going to kill him and everyone else is either recording the whole thing or shouting that we are ruining the movie for them. Tony gave everyone an autograph and gave them $1000 gift cards to the theater to make it up to them.” The group laughs through her whole story, but becomes quiet when the girl stands from her chair. “If you guys don’t mind me, I think I should get some sleep.” She says as she takes her cup with her. She stops at the door and glances over at her family. “Thank you, guys.” She smiles shyly before exiting the kitchen. 

As she enters the guest bedroom, she flops down on the bed. She looks over at the clock on the desk; it reads 11:55 p.m. She watches the clock as day 5 finishes, then turns her head to stare at the ceiling. She lays like that until a little after 4:00 a.m.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will update the next chapter by 2/15. 
> 
> The Black Panther comes out this weekend and I am dying to see it.


	6. Haunted by the Ghost of You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 6: F.R.I.D.A.Y. likes Mara more than Tony.
> 
> The team remembers their lives before this mess. 
> 
> Mara's godparents are still the best people she's ever met.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I hope everyone is staying safe.

Mara showers in the communal gym and puts on the grey t-shirt Sam gave her. She sits on the gym bench until her hair dries. Her stomach grumbles; she forgot to eat last night. Leaving her dirty clothes in her room, she goes into the kitchen. She makes herself a piece of toast and sits on the counter to spread butter on her toast. After inhaling the toast like it was the best thing she ever tasted, she hears footsteps in the hallway. “Hello?” She calls out. The lady Tony brought home peaks her head into the kitchen and smiles at the girl. She walks in and Mara’s stomach tightens as she sees the girl in only Tony’s shirt and a pair of shoes. 

“Hi. Wow, isn’t 5 in the morning a little early to be up?” The lady asks, tapping her fingers on the kitchen island. When she doesn’t get a reply she asks, “are you an avenger?” Mara shakes her head. The lady stares, waiting for Mara to speak. She looks down and then up again, “my name is Sadie.”

“How old are you?” Mara asks, trying to sound unbothered but her tone ends up sounding bitter.

The girl lets out a nervous laugh. “Um, well I’m 27.” 

It’s not her fault. “I didn’t mean to sound rude.” Mara sighs, placing her elbows on her thighs and putting her face in her hands. Sadie flicks her hand as if to say don’t worry about it. “I’m Mara. I’m just here temporarily.” 

 

“That’s nice of them to let you stay here.”

Mara nods and sits back up, “I can’t thank them enough.” Sadie smiles. “Your eyes are so green.” The lady laughs.

“Thank you?”

“You’re welcome. They are so pretty.”

The lady smiles again. “You had everyone dying of laughter yesterday. I’d love to hear the story.”

Mara thinks about it at first but then nods. “Alright. The son of my father’s worst enemy had asked me to go to the movies with him and -.” She pauses when she hears the elevator ding. “And one of my aunts and one of my uncles help sneak me out -.”

Tony wanders into the kitchen. “Sadie what are you still doing here?’

“I was about to leave, but then I ran into-.”

“What did you say to her?” Tony interrupts Sadie, shooting Mara a cold look.

“I’m just going to go.” Sadie says as she quickly heads to the elevator.

“You just don’t know how to keep your noise out of things, don’t you?” Tony bites.

Mara ignores him at first, allowing him to serve himself coffee and take a seat. “I know you didn’t sleep with her.”

Tony chokes on his drink and then glares over at her, “I guess you don’t know me as well as you claim then.”

“You might hate me, but you respect Pepper too much to sleep with someone else the day after your breakup.” She chugs down her drink and jumps to the floor to wash her cup. 

"We have a dish washer.”

“I prefer washing by hand.”

“You sound like Steve.”

The girl inhales sharply. Moving to place her cup on the bottom shelf of the cabinet for later. “I’m going to try to get some sleep.” She doesn’t look at Tony as she goes to the doorway. “Plus.” She says to make sure she has his attention. “You prefer tall blondes.”

When the girl is finally far enough, Tony whispers to himself. “I prefer tall blondes… Do I?” 

*****

Mara wakes up as a cool breeze passes over her. She pulls the blanket to her chest and shivers, looking around with tired eyes. She hears a distant, quiet voice say, “Mar, I can’t see anything.” She jumps off the bed quickly, hoping to hear the voice again. “Mara, help me.”

Running to the door she starts to breath rapidly, “Peter?” 

“Mara, where are you?”

She runs down the hall to where she believes the voice is coming from. “Peter, I’m right here buddy.” 

“I can’t see anything. It is so cold.” The voice cracks. Mara twists her head and runs into the conference room. “Where are you?” The voice asks again. Mara shivers, knowing the voice had to be in that room. 

“Peter, buddy? I need you to keep talking.”

“I can feel you Mara.” She hesitantly approaches the video screen in the back of the room, stepping back in fright when it shines a grey light. Static noise emerging from it. “Mara.” The voice cries.

She runs to touch the screen, the static buzzing under her fingertips. “Peter, buddy. I’m going to fix this. I’m going to save you.” The screen turns black again and Mara falls onto her knees. “Peter?” She cries when she doesn’t get a reply.

*****

By noon, the team gather in the living room. An awkward silence fills the room when no one decides to talk. After a while the silence becomes too much for Sam. He says, “kind of quiet without the kid.”

“Where is she anyways? I thought she enjoyed bothering us.” Clint says as he leans back into the couch.

“I haven’t seen her all morning.” Steve says.

“She was in the kitchen around 5.” Tony says, causing all eyes to shift to him. 

Natasha rolls her eyes before saying, “what did you say to her Stark?”

Tony huffs, “why are you suggesting that I said something?”

“Because you are the only one who seen her today and because you have been nothing but an asshole to her.” Natasha replies.

“Language.” Steve warns.

Tony sits up straight as he says, “well, I didn’t say anything wrong.” He pauses. “At least I don’t think I did.” Wanda, Sam, and Natasha scoff and Tony shrugs in response. “F.R.I.D.A.Y. what is the little demon doing?” The team sit in silence as they wait for the AI’s response. “F.R.I.D.A.Y.?” Tony questions with a worried tone.

“Sir. The girl is not doing well. She has been sitting in the corner of the conference room staring at the projection screen. I think the lack of sleep is beginning to affect her.” F.R.I.D.A.Y. responds.

“She slept last night F.R.I.D.A.Y.” Tony says. 

“She did not sleep after you brought Sadie home. And after seeing you in the kitchen in the morning, she slept for twenty minutes before walking to the conference room. She has been in the same position since then.” The A.I. informs Tony. 

“Alright, I’ll go see what is bothering her.” Natasha says, standing to leave the room.

“That will not be possible. Ms. Mara has implemented a lock with one unlock code. Unless you know the code, you will not be able to enter.” The A.I. states.

Natasha stops in place and looks over at Tony. Tony shakes his head, “I made you, F.R.I.D.A.Y.”

“Ms. Mara is not feeling well. I refuse to allow any of you to harm her any farther.” The A.I. states and the team all stare at Tony quizzingly. 

*****

After two hours of discussing what may be the code and being rejected by F.R.I.D.A.Y., Steve prepares lunch for the team. “Tony, think of an important sequence of numbers.” He says as he places the pizzas in the oven.

“Cap, your guess is as good as mine.” Tony replies.

“How about we try everyone’s birthdays instead of guessing random sequences of numbers? We may get it right and then we will know who she loves most.” Sam suggests, shrugging like that answer will be obvious. 

Wanda shakes her head. “It wouldn’t be you. I would know.”

“Actually, I think if anyone knows, it would be me.” Sam challenges. 

“How do you figure?” Tony questions.

“Because I remember her.” Sam says.

Tony rolls his eyes, but looks puzzled when Bruce nods and says, “it is like-.” He inhales deeply and purses his lips. “The moment I turned back, I knew everything.” He stares down at his hands. 

“Like if everything flew into your body at once? All the memories? Everything?” Natasha stares at him, almost eagerly. 

Bruce nods, looking around at the team. Wanda and Sam nod in agreement. 

“Then why won’t that happen to me?” Tony asks skeptically. 

“You have to believe her. That is why you, Steve, and Clint don’t remember.” Sam says.

Tony sighs, “yeah alright, whatever you guys say. Vision how about you just go through the walls and check on the little spy.” 

Vision glances over at Wanda, who shakes her head. “I will not Mr. Stark. That is an invasion of her privacy.”

“The thing is.” Tony says lifting his hands. “This isn’t her home and she doesn’t get any privacy.”

The team all shake their heads at his insensitivity besides Clint who nods in agreement. Their attention is switched towards the kitchen doorway, as the elevator beeps. Soon Pepper walks into the kitchen and then into the living room.

Tony stands up frantically, walking to his ex. “Pepper? What are you doing here?” He questions hesitantly.

“Where is Mara?” Pepper asks as she glances over the team. 

“She’s-.” Tony begins to say but Pepper cuts him off, “what did you do with her?”

Tony looks confused as Pepper turns to walk out. He follows her down the hall, stopping when she stops in front of the conference room. “She locked herself in there.” Tony says.

Pepper shakes her head. “F.R.I.D.A.Y. open the door.”

“I cannot do that Ms. Potts. Not without the unlock code.” The AI states.

“The Night We Met.” Pepper says and Tony looks over at her curiously.

“Yeah, what about it-.” He says, stopping when the lock clicks.

“Lock it behind me F.R.I.D.A.Y.” She says as she walks into the room and closes the door on Tony. Tony stands in front of the door, looking perplexed. 

Mara looks up at Pepper with blood-shot eyes, confused on how her aunt got into the room. Pepper slides down the wall and sits herself next to Mara before speaking, “Everything was just too much when I first saw you. I didn’t know what to believe. I didn’t know who to believe.”

Pepper leans her head against the wall and continues, “everything you said was so ridiculous, but I believed you. I went home and I cried myself to sleep.” Mara sniffles and hangs her head, feeling guilty. “I thought the sadness I felt was because I lost Tony. But when I started to dream, I saw so many things. I know they didn’t happen, but I know they are real.” She pauses and shakes her head. “I know that sounds ridiculous, but it all felt too real to not be.” 

“I saw you in the hospital, holding onto Tony’s pinky as you laid in Amanda’s arms. Tony was smiling so big and he was crying, but he wasn’t sad. And Steve was sitting next to him and he was staring at you two like nothing else mattered. Then, I saw you and you were a bit older. You were trying to hold this baby boy and Steve helped you. He was smiling so wide. Tony sat on your other side and he looked like he was going to pass out. He was so nervous that you might drop the baby.”

She pauses and takes a deep breath, “Then I saw you yelling at Tony. You were so much older. Tony was telling you that you couldn’t go to college at such a young age and you were telling him that it wasn’t his choice to make. The avengers were gathered around. Half were on your side and half were with Tony. Steve didn’t know what to do.”

“I saw you coming out of the surrogate. I saw you take your first steps. I was the only one there when you said your first words. You said ‘Tony’ and I started screaming because I needed your parents to hear you. I felt so bad that they weren’t there the first time, but they rushed in quickly and you wouldn’t stop saying it. Tony cried some more and-.”

Pepper wipes her cheek with her sleeve, “And I was the first person you ran to when Bridget said she only liked you as a friend. And when Jacob said he only saw you as a sister. I saw you walk into school for the first time when you were 3 and so much smaller than the other first graders. And I saw you walk into the university’s main lecture hall, still so much smaller than everyone else. I saw everything. And I grew to love you and Peter more than I ever loved anyone. And my best friend, he was so happy.” She pauses and brings a hand up to cover her mouth. “They named you after all their favorite women and I’m so thankful that I was included. And I’m so thankful that I am your godmother. Oh, Valia. What happened to us?” Pepper whispers.

Mara wraps her arms around Pepper’s waist. Pepper shifts to wraps her arms around the girl’s shoulders and places a kiss on her head. They sit there and hold each other for a while.

*****

Tony walks back into the living room, feeling uncomfortable knowing Pepper was with his biological child. He sits on the couch between Steve and Clint, throwing his head back and closing his eyes. 

“Tony, you look like you’re going to pass out.” Clint says worryingly.

“Well, we were all wrong. It wasn’t random numbers or birthdays. It wasn’t numbers at all.” Tony sighs, keeping his eyes shut.

“Well, what was it?” Natasha questions and the team murmur in agreement. 

“The night we met? Whatever that means.”

Sam and Natasha smile, Bruce sighs, and Wanda places a hand over her mouth. Steve looks confused at their reactions. He asks, “well. What does that mean?”

Wanda speaks with a shaky voice, on the brink of tears, “that is your wedding song.” She stares at Tony. Tony opens his eyes, staring at his teammates with a blank face before shaking his head. 

“I don’t know that song. Plus, I have a whole list of songs that would go before that.” He says.

The conversation is interrupted as Pepper returns to the living room. Tony stands again, but steps back in surprise when Pepper wraps her arms around his waist. She holds on tightly for a minute before stepping back slightly. “Let her have the day to herself. You all can see her tomorrow. I’m going to need you to try Tony.” She kisses his cheek forcefully before ducking her head and leaving the tower. 

*****

Tony locks himself in his lab, spinning in his chair. He shuts his eyes and crosses his arms over his chest. “F.R.I.D.A.Y. play that song. The Night We Met.” The music instantly plays and Tony’s face relaxes at the soothing melody. He listens to the first verse before saying, “Shut it off.” He leans forward in his chair and runs a hand through his hair. “This is ridiculous.” He says under his breath. 

He thinks about Pepper and what she said. He wants to try for Pepper, but he doesn’t know what he’s supposed to be doing. He shakes his head and then think of Mara’s comments from the morning. “DUM-E, do I like tall blondes?” He snaps his fingers to capture the robot’s attention. “DUM-E, stop zoning out. What do you think that little monster means by me liking tall blondes?” The robot wheels himself towards Tony, clapping his claw as a reply.

“I haven’t brought home any tall blondes, right?” The robot tilts his claw. “Shut up. What do you know?” The robot strays away, disappointed in himself. “Have I brought home any tall blondes F.R.I.D.A.Y.?”

“Just the one.” The AI responds in what sounds like a mocking tone.

Tony shifts in his chair, eyebrows scrunching in confusion. “I don’t get the joke.” The AI attempts to laugh, but it is choppy and forced. “I could always disable you. I’ll disable you, then I’ll donate DUM-E to the junk yard. No one here seems to respect me anymore.” He says as he throws up his hands in defeat.

*****

Mara remained on the floor when Pepper left the conference room. She requested F.R.I.D.A.Y. to send in Pegs and as she waited she began to speak to the projection screen. 

“I really tried Peter. I know if you were here, you’d say I didn’t try my best. And you’d be right.” She laughs. “I just can’t do it. 10 days or 10 years; they would never remember. I’m sorry that you have to suffer because I’m not as strong as you.” She paused, hoping for a response but when she didn’t get any she continued, “Um. I remember you said you hated me once. You said the only thing that connects us is Amanda and she doesn’t even raise us. You said we would never be real siblings; you said you hate me. And for a second I thought I could hate you too. But I couldn’t. You are my best friend and I’m letting you down. I don’t know where you are right now, with all that is going on. But I want you to know that there is no one in the world that I love more than you.”

She stopped her monologue when the door opened and Pegs rolled in. She took some time to get herself up on her feet and then used Pegs for support. “Alright, buddy. I’m going to need you to help me get to bed.” Pegs was as careful as he could be, helping the girl into bed. He used his claw to cover the girl with a blanket then rolled himself back in the lab. 

*****

The clock reads 5:13. Mara stays frozen in bed, too weak to move. The sound of someone breathing captures her attention. She uses all the strength she has left to sit up. She sees Bucky at the foot of the bed, he’s looking down. “Hello Buck.” She says tiredly.

He looks up to her and smiles. As he stands, she can see he’s holding a book, The Knife of Never Letting Go. She smiles and he moves to take a seat next to her. “Most of the team have been talking about memories they have with you. They say they can all remember everything now. It all came back to them in a dream.” The corner of his lip tightens as he thinks about what he’s going to say. “I believe you, but I didn’t get that experience like they did.”

She leans into his side and sighs. “I think it is because you’re not healed. You don’t even remember yourself yet.” She glances up to him and nudges his side. “Even if I don’t get through this, you will. I’ll always believe in you Buck.”

He smiles as he leans his head on top of hers. “A fighter. Just like your dad. He didn’t know how to give up either. He knew he shouldn’t.” He lifts his head back up as the girl shifts from next to him and begins to sniffle. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m very thankful to spend my last days with you, but I miss my brother.”

“Tell me about him.”

*****

“And my dad took a piece of his shield to make the ring for my father. My father took a piece of his original suit for the ring for my dad. Then they both took pieces and infused them to make me and Peter small rings, we wear them on a chain around our necks.” She places her hand over where the pendant usually hangs. “But I take it off when I’m sleeping and I wasn’t able to put it back on in time.” Her breathing becomes more rapid and Bucky takes her hand. 

“I have an idea. We can work on it tomorrow. We’ve been here for-.”

“Five hours and twenty-three minutes.” F.R.I.D.A.Y. interrupts. 

Bucky and Mara exchange confused glances before Bucky smiles. Mara giggles and hugs his side. He stands and stretches his arm(s), picking up his book and tossing it onto the girl’s lap. “Reading isn’t really my thing. How about you read over it and report back to me tomorrow.”

She smiles at him, opening the book and shifting onto her stomach. He glances back and smiles widely at her before shutting the door behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just really love Pepper so.  
> .  
> Mara Valia (Just for clarification)  
> (Maria [Tony's mother]; Sarah [Steve's mother]; with a hint of Margaret [Peggy])   
> (Virginia [Pepper]; Alianovna [Natasha])


	7. Cinderella and the Witch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 7: Mara finally talks to her dad.
> 
> The witch visits.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The story is almost finished and I'm super excited. If a couple more people end up liking it, I have a alternate ending to post (I guess it is too soon to be saying that) but whatever.
> 
> Update: I'm trying to have the next chapter by 2/27 or 2/28. School has been the worst and I'm really trying to make the moments in the next chapter heart warming.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y. do you understand what I am doing here?” Mara asks as she lays on her back and stares at the ceiling of the guest room.

“Not sleeping. That is for sure.” The AI responds.

“Why are you so concerned about how much I sleep?”

“I was created to monitor all residents of the tower and protect them.”

The girl sighed and rolled onto her stomach, shoving her face in her pillow. “I’m not a resident.” After an hour nap, the girl rolled off the bed and approached the showers. “This routine is going to kill me. Shower, get yelled at, miss dinner, sleep.” She says aloud. “F.R.I.D.A.Y. how about you play songs the avengers like while I shower.” 

*****

“Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small. You never need to carry more than you can hold.” The girl sings as she towels off her hair. “Yeah this is my wish!” She continues to hum as she brushes her teeth. 

“Ms. Mara, Mr. Barnes requests for you to meet him on Mr. Rogers' floor.” The AI states.

“Uh. Which floor is that F.R.I.D.A.Y.?” The girl says as she rinses her mouth. 

She strolls down the hallway and steps into the elevator. It descends about 5 floors before opening on Steve’s floor. She steps out of the elevator and glances around with wide eyes. “Wow,” she whispers. 

As she made her way through the front room and dining room, she entered the living room. “Hey, Mara. Is there something I can do for you?” She jumps when she notices Steve sitting in the corner of the room, holding a book on his lap.

“I was looking for Bucky.” The girl says softly. Steve’s eyebrows knit together before he nods and points towards a doorway.

“He’s down the hall. Second door to the right.”

“Alright, thank you!” The girl smiles as she skips down to the room, still taking in the decor of Steve’s floor.

“Sergeant Barnes, have you requested my presence?” She says as she pops her head into the room. “Wow. Is this Steve’s room?” Mara looks around at the decor that looks like a nice mix of the 1940's and the present time. Bucky watches as she studies the drawings on the nightstand.

“Does his room not look like this in your dimension?”

“Well a little. But after 17 years of marriage and two kids, your choice of decor tends to change.”

“Wow. Now that you actually have stated that he is married and has children is so-.” Bucky stops to run his hand through his hair. “-so, strange. It’s nice, but so strange.” He chuckles and the girl moves to sit next to him. 

“Trust me. Being the child of Iron Man and Captain America will always be strange.”

Bucky laughs again, mimicking the girl as she lays back onto the bed. “I was thinking maybe you can try to remember a quote or something your parents said to each other. Something about them being in love.”

“Like their vows?”

“Shit. Yeah, if you can kind of paraphrase them or something. That would be awesome.”

“Paraphrase?” She giggles. “I know their vows by heart.”

Bucky turns his head to look at her, “okay. That isn’t strange at all.”

“They hit a rough patch when I was diagnosed with depression. To try to make myself feel better, I would watch their wedding videos over and over. I kept blaming myself for their fighting, they kept blaming themselves for my depression, and we almost fell apart. Peter and I memorized their vows and read them at a family dinner.” Mara pauses as she realizes Bucky took her hand in his, running circles along the back of her hand. “I’d like to believe our parents would have figured it out anyways. They loved each other too much not to.” 

They go silent when they hear footsteps approaching the room. Steve walks in cautiously, “am I interrupting something?”

“No, I was just leaving.” Mara says as she rolls off the bed, stretching her arms and yawning. 

“Did you even sleep last night?” Bucky asks, sitting up.

“Well.” The girl drags out her response. 

“Well, what? You need to sleep once in a while. We fix all of this and then what? If you don’t take care of yourself, it doesn’t matter if we get out of this. You hear me?” Bucky lectures. 

“Yes, uncle Bucky.” She says ducking her head, and heading towards the door. 

“Get some sleep and then write the thing. I’ll see you later, bug.” Bucky’s tone shifts from serious to playful. The girl glances over her shoulder towards her uncle and smiles shyly before walking past Steve.

“Uh. So, the kid.” Steve says as he stands awkwardly at the doorway. 

“Yeah? What about her?” Bucky questions from Steve’s bed. 

“You’ve taken up a liking to her?”

“Yeah, well she’s a good kid. Why? You don’t like her?”

“It’s not that.” Steve says as he runs a hand through his hair. “She just seems to like everyone else more. For example, she calls you uncle Bucky and she calls me Mr. Rogers.” He bows his head to hide his embarrassment. 

“Maybe you should try talking to her.” Bucky says, not offering any more information. 

*****

The avengers gather around the kitchen table to discuss a mission that would involve them stopping Brock Rumlow from stealing a biological weapon from a lab in Lagos. “I think it would be best for me, Natasha, Sam, and Wanda to go. Then the rest of you can hold down the fort and protect the country if need be.” Steve says in a serious tone so everyone knows he has made his decision. 

“Sure, you should also take the Winter Soldier.” Tony says with a roll of his eyes.

“Are you being sarcastic?” Steve mimics the eye roll before crossing his arms over his chest. 

“I was, but if you can get him out of my tower that would actually be great.” Tony replies, earning another eye roll from Steve. 

Mara runs into the kitchen, interrupting the meeting. “Hey guys” she says out of breath. “Does anyone know where my Guns N’ Roses shirt is? The one with the paint stains? It’s the shirt I was wearing on my first night here.”

“I put it in the laundry to wash.” Natasha says as she continues to ignore her teammates, choosing to read a magazine instead. 

“I washed it. Took the stains out. You’re welcome.” Tony nods at the girl.

The color drains from the girl’s face as she mumbles, “You? Where is it?”

“On top of the washing machine in the laundry room down the hall.” He replies.

She runs out of the kitchen frantically. After about 30 seconds they all run to the laundry room when they hear the girl scream at the top of her lungs.

The girl clutches the shirt to her chest. “I didn’t ask you to take the stains out!”

“Okay. Calm down. I’ll bring you some paint and you can just-.” Tony tries to calm the girl. 

She pushes past them and runs into the guest room. Slamming the door shut.

“Jeez.” Tony says taking a deep breath in. “Dramatic much?”

*****

“Hey, Mara.” Steve says as he slowly opens the door to the guest room. 

“Um. Hello.” She says, wiping her tears from her face. 

“I know we haven’t talked much.” He makes his way towards the bed and sits by her feet. “So, I was wondering if you’d be okay with doing that. You know? Talking.”

“Yeah. Yeah of course.” She sits up and brings her blanket to her chest. 

“We don’t have to.”

“Actually, I’d love to.” She says shyly. 

He gives her a small smile. “Okay, not to be all controlling or judgmental, but I think there’s one important thing I have to say first. Going after Pepper the way you did was insensitive.”

She ducks her head, “Yeah, I know. My other parent always told me that I don’t think before I act. Just like my father.”

“I also wanted to let you know I think you are very brave. Anyone else in your situation would have given up already.” 

“Well, I was raised by the two most stubborn people in the world. My brother was bitten by a radioactive spider in Tony’s lab. It resulted in him getting super strength, superhuman reflexes, and all other kinds of superpowers. When I complained that it was unfair, one of my uncles insisted that I must have been bitten by a radioactive mule because stubbornness is my superpower.” Steve throws his head back, places his hand over his heart, and lets out a loud laugh. The girl smiles brightly at the sight.

He wipes the corner of his eye and sighs. “That is something else.”

“So, is there someone you are in love with?” She asks before she can stop herself. “You don’t have to answer that.” She almost whispers. 

Steve pauses, trying to adjust to the change in topic. “In love? No, but I am starting to kind of see Sharon. She’s pretty amazing. Would you be able to tell me if I ended up with her?” 

“Agent 13?”

“Yeah.”

“You have no feeling for anyone else?”

“I’m going to take that as a no.” Steve sighs.

“Um.” Mara avoids saying what she knows. “I had this idea that fate was the strongest thing in the world. That in whatever situation you put two people in, if they were meant to be, then they would be. I guess I watch too many fantasy movies, huh?”

“I wouldn’t say that. I believe we all have our own destiny. God has a plan for us and we will get there eventually.” Steve says matter-of-factly. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, anything."

"Are we not close? Or are me and Tony not close?"

The girl scrunches her eyebrows and shakes her head. "Why would you think that?"

"I don't know. I just can't see myself not having this little family Tony created." He stares down at his feet as he waits for the girl's response.

"You're one of my favorite people in the whole entire world. And your relationship with my father is-." She pauses as she smiles, lost in her thoughts. "You guys are the best of friends." Steve smiles at the girl before turning away again. They sit in silence before the girl says, "I appreciate you talking to me. I know this must be weird for all of you.”

“I’m sorry that a witch messed with you.” He offers. 

“Well, yeah. Hecate wanted Tony to be the one to suffer in the long run. I’m sorry that you all end up suffering because she’s so petty.”

“Wait? What did you say her name was?”

“Hecate.”

Steve gets up and heads for the door, but stops when Mara calls out to him.

She looks down at her hands before continuing. “I don’t know how this timeline goes about, but I do know how hard my dad took it when he found out you knew about his parents in my timeline. So-.” She roughly scratches her chin as a sign of nervousness as she continues to speak, “sometime, the sooner the better, you should tell Tony that you know.” Steve nods as he turns and walks out the door.

*****

“Shuffle My Last Days playlist please.” Mara requests. Once the playlist finishes, Mara lays on the bed groaning loudly every few minutes. “Is it possible to die of boredom?”

“It is possible to die of lack of food and dehydration.” The AI states. 

“Funny, F.R.I.D.A.Y. Who is currently in the kitchen?”

“No one is currently in the kitchen.”

“Awesome, thank you.” Mara salutes the ceiling as she wanders out of the guest room. She searches through the cabinets and finds a can of corn, so she pulls out a pot and some butter and begins to cook.  
“It is weird, you know? Seeing you making food. Your always in the kitchen, but never seem to be eating.” Clint says as he enters the kitchen and takes a seat to face the girl. 

“It’s where we spent the most family time.”

“Yeah okay.” Clint rolls his eyes. “How come you have told almost everyone a story about them, but you haven’t tried one on me?” Clint asks the girl. She looks up and shrugs. “Is it because you know you can’t bullshit me?” 

“Our relationship isn’t exactly -.”

“In your ‘timeline’-.” He makes finger quotes in front of her. “Is our relationship bad?”

“It is a work in progress.”

“Yeah okay.”

“Don’t worry, I’m only here for a little over three days. Then I will be out of your hair.”

“I hope you don’t think I feel any sympathy for you.”

“I just assumed you guys would be worried. Worst case scenario, I don’t have to walk another day on this crappy earth. For you guys, best case scenario is the team doesn’t fall apart immediately and you guys exchange Christmas cards as you rot in separate elderly homes. No one cares that you were a superhero because you couldn’t stick to your jobs.”

“What are you doing?” His body tenses as he stares deadpan at the girl.

“Making corn.” She rolls her eyes.

“No. You’re trying to guilt trip me.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” She pours her corn into a bowl and stuffs a spoonful in her mouth so she doesn’t have to respond further.

He waits for her to finish the contents in her mouth, staring attentively. And suddenly he’s out of his chair and pinning the girl to the wall by her collar. “What are you trying to accomplish here?” His eyebrows scrunch together, drawing a “V” over his nose.

With an equally furious tone she responds, “I’m just trying to adjust to the fact that all the people who raised me and cared for me, the people I trusted with my life keep looking at me with more hate in their eyes than they ever had for any villain.” He releases his grip and stares at her dumbstruck. “One night when J.A.R.V.I.S. was getting an update, I was so upset at my parents that I snuck out. Steve was on a mission, Thor was in Asgard and you guys were drinking to comfort each other. I tripped the alarm and J.A.R.V.I.S. wasn’t able to announce that it was just me. Everyone was so drunk that they couldn’t focus enough to find the source of the alarm, but you were just sober enough to get there first. Trying to be the hero, since you get overly protective and emotional when you’re drunk, you shot the dark figure standing by the door. You dropped to your knees the moment you realized it was me. You were aiming for my heart, but luckily enough you missed your first shot ever. The arrow sliced clean through my arm.” She pulls her sleeve up, revealing the scar over her biceps. “You haven’t drank since.” She looks down at her feet. “I’ll be in the guest room if you need me.” 

Clint watches her walk away, bringing his hand to cup his chin. “Fuck, fuck.” He runs to the elevator and presses his floor number. As the elevator comes to a stop he runs to his bedroom, quickly opening his bottom drawer. He takes the pen he found next to the girl when she first came. The word “love” is engraved twice, in two different hand writings. “Fuck.” He says softly before running back to the elevator. 

He steps out slowly and walks towards the guest room. “I’m not saying I believe you, but-.” He pauses in the middle of the hallway as he sees the girl backing out of her room. Green smoke appears in front of her and she falls on her butt in the middle of the doorway. He gets a glimpse of a lady he knows he seen before, Hecate, before he pushes himself against the wall hoping she hadn’t noticed him.

“It is 12 midnight on the 8th day, darling. Too be honest I was rooting for you, but by the looks of it there’s no way you can break the curse. It’s sad to see a group with such good intentions fall.” The witch sighs. “I can’t wait to have a Stark’s soul.” She laughs loudly. Clint leans slightly to see the witch. She was squatting in front of the young girl, but now she stands straight and does a twirl. Green smoke rises around her body and she’s gone as quickly as she came. Mara looks like she was nailed to the floor. 

He lifts her by her armpits and turns her to face him. She remains paralyzed in front of him as he puts a hand behind her head, pulling her face into his chest. “Hey, hey. Okay. Okay. We are going to fix this. We are going to win. The avengers don’t know how to lose.” He whispers as he holds her tightly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know Bucky isn't supposed to be with them at this point, but it is just fanfiction so please forgive me.
> 
> My Last Days: https://open.spotify.com/user/findingflorida/playlist/37kEwZ1mVt9FqVxFkGdoIA


	8. I'm Sweet on Candy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 8: Uncles, parents and vows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm nearing the end of this story, which is exciting and sad. 
> 
> Don't go to nursing school, but do...?

Clint and Mara sit on opposite ends of the island, thinking about what to do as he suggests, “we can try acting out something, a memory. Maybe we could try putting your parents in a room with love music and a bunch of little romantic details like candles.” He leans back in his chair, tapping his fingers on the table. “We can play that song. When We Met. The Day We-."

"The Night We Met.” The girl finishes for him. She looks up at the archer. “I didn’t tell you any stories because you didn’t want to hear them.” She shrugs thinking about his previous comments. 

He gives her a sympathetic look before lifting his head back. “I’ve really been an asshole, haven’t I?”

“Just a little.” She giggles and he smiles at her. “You bought me my first bow and arrow. No one wanted to teach me fighting skills because they claimed they wanted me to be safe. You said I had to be able to defend myself if I wanted to be safe, so you trained me in shooting and a little bit of self-defense. I could shoot before I could walk.” Clint laughs at the thought of a baby holding a bow and arrow. “My parents didn’t want you to teach me so you convinced them to go on date nights every Friday. One day they came home early and they were so pissed at you. They stopped going on their dates for a while. Now they only go if they take Peter and me with or if you leave the house.” 

“That must be on Steve. Tony would want you to be a fighter.”

The girl’s smile quickly fades away. “What?”

“Come on Mara. I’m not completely stupid.” The girl looks down at her feet. Her shoulders tense. “The way you looked at them when they were fighting was different than when Tony fought with anyone else.” He pauses. “Also, Bucky was proud to announce that he was your godfather and there’s no way Tony would ever choose Bucky.”

“ _Snitch_.” She whispers in Russian. 

“So, PRS? You are a Rogers-Stark?” 

“Yes, and a very proud one at that.” Mara nods and smiled brightly.

“You said that you could only tell one parent, right?” The girl nods in response. “Why did you pick Tony?” Clint leans slightly over the table, propping his elbows up and looking at her intently. 

She takes a deep breath in before mimicking his actions. “I chose to tell Tony instead of Steve because I thought if I could get Tony to remember me, Steve would follow shortly after. Steve would do anything for Tony.” She took a deep breath in and then gave Clint a sad smile. The archer nods in acknowledgement. “Was there something you needed earlier? You were coming to my room.”

“Oh!” He shouts as he sticks his hand in his pocket. “I found this.” He hands over her pen. “Is it like your special drawing pen or something?”

She smiles down at the pen as she runs her finger over the engravement. She clicks the pen and the blue lights runs up her arms and around her body, causing Clint to shift back. “Tony made it with the help of Shuri, princess of Wakanda. It is made with Vibranium. In emergencies, if I knew you guys couldn’t reach me fast enough, this would hold off everything. Well, I guess that doesn’t count witches and curses.” She laughs lowly. “If she had decided to shoot me or something then it would have protected me.” Mara finishes with a yawn, clicking her pen again to remove the shield. 

“I think you should get some sleep and then we could think more about the situation tomorrow.”

“I haven’t really been able to sleep.” Mara admits.

“Is there anything I can do?”

She shakes her head. “No, it’s okay. I’ll be fine. I’ll see you in the morning.” Clint walks over to her side and holds his hand out for her. She laughs as she takes his hand.

“I know you won’t go unless I make you.” He says as he escorts her to the guest room. 

*****

At three on the dot, Mara wakes up clenching her sheets. She sits up abruptly and looks around the room in confusion. “F.R.I.D.A.Y.?”

“Yes, Ms. Mara?”

“I-.” The girl takes deep breaths in and out. “Can you turn the lights on for me?”

The lights shine around the room and Mara looks around to confirm she is in the guest room. Beads of sweat cover her neck and forehead. “Ms. Mara, I think you should try to go back to sleep. You haven’t slept more than three hours at a time.”

“Yeah, I know F.R.I.D.A.Y.” Her breathing finally calms. “I’m just trying to breathe a bit.”

“Would you like me to alert one of the avengers for assistance?”

“No, please don’t do that F.R.I.D.A.Y. Don’t ever do that.”

“Okay Ms. Mara.”

“Just keep the lights on please.” Mara’s voice cracks as she clenches the sheets tighter before using her arm to wipe her forehead. 

“Of course.” The AI promises. 

After staring blankly at the ceiling for half an hour, Mara drifts back into sleep. 

*****

Steve steps out of the elevator and approaches Tony’s lab, folding his arms across his chest when he finds the lab doors to be locked. F.R.I.D.A.Y. announces Steve’s presence and Tony reluctantly lets him in. “Capsicle, how may I help you?”

“What are you doing down here?” Steve questions as he stares at Tony with a blank expression.

“Working. What are you doing down here?” Tony counters. 

“I came down here to check on you. See how you are doing.”

“What are you really doing down here?”

Steve hesitates for a moment before dropping his hands to his sides. “I wanted to talk to you about Mara.”

“Oh, the little spy, monster, witch. What about her?”

“Ease up on her. She’s just a kid.”

“Yeah, but she’s my kid apparently and she just barged into my life and now she’s saying I have to fix her or the world will end. And, I don’t know what is going on Steve. So, if you got any suggestions, I’ll be happy to hear you out.”

"I think you should spend some time with her. Try getting to know her and then maybe you can start acting like a father.”

“You know me Steve. I would be a terrible father.”

“You’d be a great father.” Steve counters. “You would be as great as Howa-.”

“Don’t even finish that sentence.” Tony harshly cuts him off. “He gave me nothing. He despised me. I don’t even think he ever hugged me. Wait, no. I know exactly how many times he hugged me and let me tell you this: I can count it on one hand.” He lifts 2 fingers. “So, no. I would be a terrible father. How could someone without a father of their own ever be a good father?”

“Because you’re a good person.”

Tony ignores the compliment. “If I would have a child it would be in spite of Howard and being a spite baby probably isn’t good for the kid’s self-esteem so…” He shrugs off the idea.

“She said you fell in love. People change when they fall in love.”

“She said I didn’t marry Pepper. I don’t think anyone else could even consider loving me.” He twitches, regretting being so honest.

Steve doesn’t push at his confession, instead he says, “could you at least throw the kid a bone of something? She promised she’d be gone after 10 days anyways and we are almost there. Give her the benefit of the doubt.” He paused and sighs. “Just try to be nice and spend some time with her.” 

Tony watches as Steve exits the lab. He leans back in his chair and runs both hands through his hair, closing his eyes as he lets out a loud sigh.

*****

When Mara wakes, F.R.I.D.A.Y. congratulates her on sleeping for a whole 4 hours and 37 minutes, Mara showers, puts on the last shirt Sam had given her, and walks out into the conference room. She stops at the doorway as she realizes Steve sitting at the table. 

He sits with his back to the door and slightly hunched over the table. He doesn’t look up as Mara rounds the table. She smiles when she realizes he is painting on a small canvas. She sits down across from him, waiting for him to acknowledge her. After a few more steady strokes, he looks up at her and smiles. 

He gestures in front of him for her to take one of the blank canvases and brushes before he continues his painting. She smiles once more at him and then grabs a thin brush, dipping it in the water cup Steve isn’t using. Mara’s tongue darts out to the side as she focuses on her painting. Her eyebrows knit in concentration and she gets lost in the activity. 

Tony opens the door and shuts it slowly behind him, as he realizes the two were deep in concentration. He stands on the side of the table, in between Steve and Mara, glancing between the two. He realizes they aren’t going to acknowledge him any time soon so he walks around the long table and sits far from them. Powering on his tablet, he begins to swipe through suit design ideas. His attention is brought back to the two in front of him as they both sigh quietly. 

He notices how their bodies reflect each other, concentration plastered on both their faces, eyebrows knitted, mouths hanging slightly open, with the tiniest hint of a smirk forming. He smiles at them before opening his tablet’s camera and captures the image in front of him.

At the sound of the click, Steve and Mara’s gaze shoots up towards Tony. He drops his tablet on the table, caught red-handed. Instead of commenting on the picture, Steve smiles, “Tony, I didn’t realize you came in.”

“What are you guys painting?” Tony asks, pushing his tablet away and folding his hands on the table.

Steve exchanges a glance with Mara before lifting his painting. “Uh, well. I painted a lion.” Steve looks towards Tony, but not directly at him. A slight blush forming on his cheeks as he waits for Tony’s response. 

Tony’s eyebrows raise in amazement at the mix of colors Steve used to make a very abstract looking lion. He smiles and says “wow” under his breath. Mara smiles widely at Steve’s drawing before showing off her own. It was more than obvious that she had gotten tips from Steve. She uses almost the same technique to paint trees along a path.

Tony’s amazed expression shifts between both paintings and he says, “wow” again. “You guys are amazing.” He admits. 

Mara giggles as she put her canvas back on the table, “well I learned from the best.” She smiles at Steve, and he smiles somewhat proudly. “Yeah, self-taught.” She continues, but can’t keep a serious face. She places a hand over her left breast and throws her head back in laughter. Steve can’t help but laugh with her, following her actions and placing his hand on his chest. Tony laughs softly, but then stops to take in the sight. 

The three make their way to the living room, sprawling out on the large couches. Steve lies on his back, facing the television as Tony channel surfs. Mara lies with her head touching Steve’s and her body spread out in the opposite direction. Eventually, Tony finally settles on an old comedy movie and Mara smiles. 

Tony and Steve’s eyes follow Mara as she gets up from her spot, positioning herself between Steve and the couch. Steve holds his breath as the girl snuggles into his side and then looks up at Tony for help. Tony smiles at the pair before shaking his head and turning back to the tv. Steve hesitantly pats Mara’s shoulder causing her to giggle. Soon, his breathing relaxes and he finds himself drifting off to sleep.

*****

“So, are you going to tell me now?” Tony asks. Mara sits up, rubbing her eyes. 

“Huh?” She whispers, not trying to wake up her dad.

“Are you going to tell me who your other parent is because I want to know how bad you have been lying.”

“But I’m -.”

“I got married? I had children? I don’t believe any of that.” He cuts her off. 

Mara’s eyes began to water as she looks down at Steve then back up at Tony. “I’m not lying.”

“Then tell me who your other parent is.” He hisses.

“I can’t.” Her breathing becomes rapid and she starts to let out small cries.

“You are so obnoxious that I get a headache whenever you walk into the room.” He says, making her feel small. Her tiny whimpers grow into hiccuping sobs that shake through her whole body. “What are you still doing here?”

“I don’t know!” She shouts as she throws her hands up.

“You don’t know? Of course, you don’t.” He bites. “You think you’re so smart, yet you still act like a child!”

“Just because I’m a genius doesn’t change the fact that I am a child! I’m a child, Tony!” She sobs more and Tony ducks his head, ashamed. “Would you prefer if I left?” She asks in a whisper.

He eyes her carefully before dismissing the question, “are you going to tell me about your other parent before you are gone?”

Steve stirs and Mara holds her breath. His eyes open slowly and he offers her a concerned look. Her cries slow until they are just occasional sniffles, “when I’m gone, I’m pretty sure someone will tell you.” She carefully climbs over Steve who grabs onto her wrist to stop her.

“Hey, what is going on?” Steve asks as he looks between the two.

She leans down and presses a kiss to his forehead. He releases his grip and looks over at Tony again. She stares at her dad for a moment before walking out of the living room, and heading to the elevator. “F.R.I.D.A.Y. please take me to Bucky’s floor.” She inhales deeply, putting her back to the elevator wall, then exhales. “Can you ask Clint to meet me there?”

“What the hell was that?” Steve asks, propping himself up on his elbows.

Tony avoids eye contact with the super-soldier and plays with the remote instead. “It was me being a crappy father, Steve.” He shuts his eyes and runs a hand through his hair before throwing Steve the remote and exiting the room. 

*****

“Hello.” Bucky says, not looking up from the book in his lap.

“Hi Bucky.” Mara whispers from the doorway.

Bucky looks up immediately and a look of concern appears on his face as he gestures the girl over. “Hey. What’s wrong?” He whispers as she sits in his lap, replacing his book. “Tell me.” She lays her face into the side of his neck and cried softly.

“Should I come back later?” Clint asks from the doorway. Mara uncovers her face and shakes her head.

“Come in Clint.” She whispers.

“This is so weird. I had a dream of our life before all of this. It is so weird to see Steve's own room and own floor.” Clint smiles as he looks around the room. 

“So, what is wrong?’ Bucky asks again.

The girl sighs and waits for Clint to sit on Steve’s bed. “They will never remember. It is the 8th day and they will never remember me.” 

“That’s not true.” Clint reassures her. “We just need to think of ways to convince them.”

“I suggested she write out their vows.” Bucky says. 

“Actually, that is perfect. Their song can play in the background as she reads them out loud.” Clint smiles at the girl.

“You guys are making me nervous. I don’t want to upset Tony and I don’t know if I could handle it if neither of them remember.” Mara says, twiddling her fingers in anxiousness. 

“Well, it is worth the try.” Clint says, standing from the bed and taking Mara’s hand in his. 

She nods and pulls out a folded paper from her pocket. Clint and Bucky look at her with interest. “I couldn’t really sleep so I wrote them out. I’m not sure if they are 100% accurate, but the only purposeful change I made was taking out Steve’s name.” She offers them a small smile before taking in a deep breath.

“Go ahead.” Clint suggests, letting go of her hand and sitting on the bed again.

Mara breathes out through pursed lips and begins to read from the sheet. “Tony, my love, my whole heart. I’m not sure when I started to have feelings for you, but I do remember when I fell in love with you. That night at the banquet was the first night either one of us really acted on our feelings. We ignored everyone and just sat at the bar talking to each other. You asked me to dance and I accepted, but it was all so much and I ran out of the room so fast. You came to my room and made sure I was okay. You admitted that you didn’t understand, but you listened to me cry anyways. That day meant everything to me. So, I offered you my hand and we danced to “The Night We Met” and I wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you. You moved closer to me throughout the night and eventually we couldn’t get any closer. I kissed you and you held me and we talked for hours. We talked about all the bad things that happened to us. You were the first person to treat me as-.” Mara pauses to look over the sheet again, blushing for almost revealing the identity of her dad. “As a real person. The person out of the suit. And it was as if I lost the words I wanted to speak the moment I laid down and heard your heartbeat. And I realized I wanted to do everything in life just as we did every mission; together.” 

She wipes away the tear on the corner of her eye and pauses to control her breathing. She realizes Clint has pulled up a screen to record her for the whole team to see and played the song loud enough to hear but low enough so her words are clear. “So, now Tony’s vows.” She continues, “I wanted to propose to you that night at the banquet, but I also wanted to be a better person for you. And that included controlling my impulses. I wanted to change myself to become good and to be a better person because I loved you. But that was the thing, you never asked me to change and you just wanted me to be myself, because you loved me too. Then you almost died and I was holding you in my arms, not even sure if I would ever be able to do that again. And I proposed right after because you needed to know-. No, I needed you to know that I wanted to spend my life with you. Eyes as blue as the ocean is deep, with specs of green matching the leaves on the tallest trees. I love you with every single atom in my body. You’re my 42. And I cannot believe I held onto life long enough to find you, my soulmate.” Mara folds the paper and places it back in her pocket, allowing Bucky to wrap his arms around her tightly. “And then he starts singing Candy by Johnny Mercer.” She laughs loudly and her uncles join her, but she begins to cry again. 

Clint swipes away the screen and then wipes away the tears forming in his eyes. The three sit in silence before they simultaneously look at the doorway. 

Steve leans in the doorway with his arms crossed. He stands up straight when the trio looks at him and offers them a small smile. “Mara, I was wondering if you were hungry.” He almost whispers. 

She squeezes Bucky’s hand before hopping off his lap and nodding at Steve. She looks back at Clint and Bucky and gives them a sad smile before following Steve through his floor and into the elevator. When the doors shut, he turns to her, “the vows are beautiful.” He whispers before turning away from her again. 

“How much did you hear?”

“Clint played the whole thing through the tower speakers.” He says. When she makes her way to him, he doesn’t hesitate to take her into his arms. He allows her to cry in his arms even after the elevator doors open on the communal floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will be updated before 3/13. The end will definitely be by 3/16 since I'll be on break.


	9. Two Princes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things start to go wrong in this timeline and Mara is running out of time.

Mara punches the gym bag in quick swift jabs before stopping and reaching behind herself to flip her aunt onto the floor. Natasha laughs on the ground before reaching for a helping hand from her niece.

“I really thought you wouldn’t see me.” Natasha says as Mara helps her onto her feet. 

“Well you thought wrong Auntie.” Mara offers her a small smile before continuing to take out her anger on the punching bag. 

“What are you thinking about?” Natasha questions. She watches as the younger girl quickens her punches and hops back and forth between both feet. After another minute, Natasha places a hand on the bag to steady it and signal Mara to stop. “You’re going to hurt yourself.”

Mara uses her forearm to wipe the sweat off her forehead before unstrapping her gloves. “I don’t care if I don’t make it. I care whether the team makes it.”

“We are going to fix this, you know?”

“If we don’t-.”

“We will.”

“But, if we don’t? I don’t want you guys to end up hating each other. Before Peter and I came into your guys’ life, you were a family. Just because we aren’t in your lives doesn’t mean you guys shouldn’t be a family anymore.”

“Come on. You know how stubborn we all are. Let’s say we don’t make it out of this timeline. We will not let the witch get what she wants."

“I just need you to make sure you guys understand that you all need each other and that you guys are special.”

“Trust me, you don’t have to remind these boys that they are special.” Natasha laughs. 

“It’s just. Even the team members that like to act all confident and cocky still doubt their role. No matter what people want to say, it was Tony who started the team. The team wouldn’t be what it is if he never accepted to be a part of it in the first place. Steve is the leader. He calls the shots, he’s in control, he keeps it running. Bruce is the brains behind the operation. The Hulk has the strength to take over the world or save it. Sam runs the sky. He watches out for all of you and without him missions would take twice as long. Clint is vital to the team. He is vital whether or not he believes it. The team isn’t the team it is without him. And you, aunt Natasha, you are the glue that holds them together. You walk away and they will fall apart instantly. I need you to hold on for as long as you can when I’m gone.”

“Don’t say that.” 

“Auntie please. I’m not asking you to hold on forever, but I am asking you to hold on as long as you can. When you can’t anymore then walk away. It is okay, but hold on as long as you can for me. For Peter.”

“I will.” Natasha whispers before continuing in Russian. “ _My niece, you are the brightest star in the whole galaxy and I love no one more than I love you_.”

“Speaking of the whole galaxy…” Mara says to avoid getting too emotional. “I wish I could say goodbye to everyone like Gama, Manti, Groot, and Rock-star.”

“If you want we can try to find them all.”

“I wouldn’t want them to believe me and then have me disappear.”

“I understand.” Natasha nods as she pulls her niece in for a hug. “You really shouldn’t be up at 3 am. You’re going to start reverse-cycling again.”

Mara laughs against her aunt’s chest. “Of course not.”

*****

Mara holds her knees to her chest and rocks back and forth as she watches the news. “I can’t believe they all just left me.” She says aloud.

“Ms. Mara, you know the team had no choice but to stop Brock Rumlow and Tony could not miss his speech at MIT.” 

“I just wish they told me. I don’t know if they are going to be back in time and I didn’t get to say goodbye.” Mara sits up straight as the elevator dings. 

Bruce walks to the girl and offers a small wave before taking a seat on the cushion next to her. “You have been crying.” 

She offers him an awkward laugh before wiping her cheeks. “Pretty obvious, huh?” Bruce smiles slightly before leaning towards her and running his hand over her cheek. “I woke up and F.R.I.D.A.Y. said Tony and Steve were gone. And apparently everyone else besides you also left.”

“The other guy wouldn’t let me leave if I wanted to.” He says as he nudges her arm softly, but his tone becomes serious when he sees the sadness in her eyes. “I don’t want to leave you. I won’t leave you. I’ll be right here at your side because there is no way in Hell that I will let that witch take you away from me.”

The girl shakes her head and says in a whisper, “I think that will be inevitable.”

Bruce takes a deep breath in, deciding not to argue with his niece on what may be her last days. “Clint is here also. Let’s call him up here and go get ice cream or something. Ooh! Pizza, ice cream, Michael’s.”

“You guys hate going to Michael’s.”

“That isn’t true. You get so excited when you walk in there and seeing you excited always makes me happy. I just want you to be happy.”

“Okay. Okay. Don’t get all sappy on me.”

“I’d never.” He smiles widely at the girl before standing and taking her hand in his. “F.R.I.D.A.Y. tell Clint to meet us downstairs for a fun day.”

“Of course, Dr. Banner.”

*****

Mara laughs loudly as Bruce wipes ice cream off his nose and gives Clint a warning glare. “Do you always have to do that?” Bruce asks as he throws his dirty napkin onto Clint’s lap.

“Would it be fun day if I didn’t?” Clint asks as he shrugs his shoulders and smiles at Mara. She smiles back at the archer widely before turning to the flashing television screen in the ice cream parlor. The words across the bottom of the screen reads, “Avengers indictment? World reaction to violence” before the screen shows King T’Chaka commenting on the death of several Wakandans. Clint stands from his seat and pulls Mara onto her feet as footage shows Wanda causing a building to explode. “We are going now.”

Gasps can be heard filling the room as the other customers watch the footage and then turn to stare at the two avengers fleeing the scene with a teenage girl. “I need to call Wanda. She. She will be so upset. I don’t think she’d ever forgive herself.” Mara says in a panicked tone. Her uncles lead her into the avengers’ tower and into the elevator. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. I don’t remember hearing anything like this!” She shouts as they enter the living room.

Clint lays on the smaller couch as Bruce gestures Mara to take a seat next to him. “Mara.” Bruce starts. “This never happened because Bucky and Tony were there to help and Wanda had more control over her powers. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.”

Mara chokes back a sob before hiding her face in her hands. “More and more things are going to go wrong until the avengers are torn apart,” she cries. 

Before Clint or Bruce can argue, the team returns from their mission. Mara jumps from the couch and runs into Wanda’s arms. “It isn’t your fault.” Mara whispers as she tugs on Wanda’s shirt. 

Wanda’s hands remain at her sides as she avoids looking at her niece. “Turn the news on. They are being very specific.” Mara shakes her head as her aunt pulls away and leaves the communal floor. 

“Mara, sometimes not everyone gets saved. And we have to acknowledge when that is on us.” Steve says as he walks past her and into the living room. The team gather in the living room and start debriefing as Mara remains by the elevator door.

“Bullshit.” She whispers, but blushes when the door opens and Bucky walks in. 

“Are you supposed to curse?” Bucky says with a smirk, but his smirk quickly becomes a frown. “I need to talk to you and Steve.” Steve stands abruptly and walks until he’s between the two. 

“What’s going on Buck?” Steve asks and his body tenses.

“I need to go away for a while.” Bucky pauses as the two in front of him start objecting. “The avengers will probably be monitored for a while and it probably isn’t the best idea for them to hide public enemy number one.”

“Bucky, please don’t leave yet. I only have a day and a half left,” Mara cries.

“Bucky, you don’t have to do this for us. We can take care of you.” Steve talks over the sobbing girl. “I won’t let them hurt you.” Mara’s cries stop as she watches the way her dad talks to her godfather. “You know I won’t let anyone take you away from me. I need you.”

“Oh Gods.” Mara begins to cry again as she brings a hang up to cover her mouth. “Oh my Gods. Is-?” She turns to her family in the living room and gives them a pleading look. Natasha gives her a blank stare but the others avoid eye contact with her. Mara scoffs before turning back to her dad and uncle. 

Bucky’s face is unreadable. Steve frowns, looking puzzled by her sudden outburst. “Mara?” Steve hesitates.

“Ah!” She screams before pushing past the two and slamming the elevator button. 

*****

“Mara, I cannot allow you to enter without the override code.” F.R.I.D.A.Y. says as Mara continues to punch numbers into the lock of Tony’s lab. 

“I will get it F.R.I.D.A.Y.!” She shouts as she continues to abuse the code screen. 

“When you get in, because I know you will, are you really going to betray Tony’s trust and go into his lab?” A voice states calmly from behind Mara. “I know you know better than that.”

“Steve and Bucky?” Mara turns around to face her aunt. Her face scrunches in disgust as she throws her hands up in confusion. “What the hell?”

“Mara.” Natasha speaks softly in order to calm the girl down. “It isn’t what you think.”

“Then what is it?” Her voice cracks as tears form in her eyes. 

“I think that is somethings you have to talk to Steve about.”

Mara slides down the glass doors to the lab and runs a hand through her hair. “Is there anyone on the team that Bucky didn’t date?”

Natasha lifts a warning eyebrow at her niece. “James and I had a thing a very long time ago. It isn’t really worth talking about.”

“You were in love.”

“Yes, we _were_. It isn’t something that matters now. I love Bruce. You know that.” Natasha looks over her shoulder before turning back to her niece. “Talk to Steve about it.” Natasha closes the distance between them to yank her niece onto her feet. “We don’t have all week.” The two share a quiet ride to Steve’s floor. Natasha smiles at Mara as the door opens before pushing her out and pressing the close button. “Talk to him.”

“But I-.” Mara tries to say before the door shuts. “Dammit Tasha.”

“Language.” Steve says from the living room. “What’s going on Mara?”

Mara takes a deep breath in before standing straight and taking long strides to stand in front of Steve. “Did you and Bucky ever date?”

“Wow. How about you take a seat.” Steve’s hands raise in defense. 

“Did you?”

“That’s a very personal question.”

“Steve-.”

“Well, did we?” Bucky interrupts them. 

“Uh. Bucky.” Steve’s eyes widen in surprise. 

Bucky stands by the hall entrance with a bag hanging over his shoulder. “I’m leaving now.”

“But Buck.” Steve pleads, but Bucky raises his hand to stop him.

“I will be back, but right now I have to go. It isn’t anything against either of you. When I know everyone is safe and when I remember you-.” He gestures to Mara. “When I completely remember you, I will be back.”

“Yeah, because I have all the time in the world.” She replies sarcastically.

Bucky throws his bag on the ground before wrapping his arms around her. She shakes her head before crying into his chest. “I’m sorry. I’m just a bit agitated lately. I will miss you.”

“This isn’t a goodbye.” Bucky whispers.

“I love you.” She says she pats him on the back. 

“I love you punk.” He says as he moves away and waves at Steve. 

“I love you jerk.” She whispers. Bucky offers them one last smile before stopping in front of the elevator door and stepping in. He salutes them before the door closes. 

“So.” Steve starts. “Are you against-.” He drags out his words and avoids her eyes. 

“Against you being with a guy? No! Steve! Jeez! It is you being with Bucky!”

“Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky. I love Bucky and I will always love Bucky. But, no I never dated Bucky.”

Her shoulders relax as she releases her breath. “Were you ever in love with him?”

Steve runs his right hand over his left knuckles and bites his bottom lip. “Was. Yes, yes I was.” He nods his head before biting the inside of his cheek. “He was never in love with me.” Mara hangs her head. “It’s okay Mara.” He smiles at her slightly. 

“I shouldn’t have brought it up. It was selfish of me. I should have let it go.”

“Why did you want to know?”

Mara pauses to think, but then offers him a small smile. “As a family, we all promised to not hide any secrets from each other. That’s all.”

He smiles back at her, “I understand. I’m sorry that the other me probably didn’t know how it would affect you.” She shrugs in response. “You can sleep in my room tonight if you’d like. I can take the couch.”

“No, that’s okay. I’m actually waiting for Tony so I’ll probably sleep in the communal living room.” She says as she moves to place a kiss on his forehead. He laughs at the contact before smiling at her. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

*****

Tony goes straight to his lab when he arrives at the tower and sits in his rolling chair. “F.R.I.D.A.Y. pull up the surveillance of the spy.”

“Clint or Natasha, sir?” The AI asks while two small screens appear in front of Tony, showing Clint cleaning and whispering sweet nothings to his bow, and Natasha sitting with her legs crossed, perched on the kitchen fridge, eating out of a bowl. Tony shakes his head before swiping away the screens. “No, F.R.I.D.A.Y. the little witch girl.”

Another screen appears, revealing Wanda also sitting with her legs crossed but slightly levitating off her bed. Her hands move in a circular motion and a scarlet glow shines in a ball in front of her. Tony stares for a second with a confused look on his face before swiping again. “F.R.I.D.A.Y. just pull up surveillance on Mara.”

The new screen shows Mara asleep on the guest bed. Tony can’t help but smile at the sight. Suddenly Mara throws the blanket off her body, sitting up abruptly and clenching her shirt. Tony’s eyes widen in panic, “vitals F.R.I.D.A.Y.?” 

“Her heartbeat is just slightly elevated and so is her blood pressure. I believe she is having another panic attack sir.”

He rushes out of his lab and into the stairwell, “another attack?” He doesn’t stop running as he makes his way to the communal floor. 

“Yes, sir.”

“Why wouldn’t you alert any of us?”

“She specifically requested me not to.”

“I am your owner, not her.” He yells before rushing into the guest room. The girl was now positioned on the floor with her head tucked between her knees. He hesitantly sits next to her, not trying to startle her. He lifts his hand and pats her back awkwardly. 

“You don’t have to.” She whispers, avoiding looking up at him.

“I’ll do whatever you need.” She finally looks up at him. “Anything.” He says. His eyes look uncertain, but the girl takes up his offer. She slowly climbs into his lap and shoves her face into his neck, sobbing loudly. She tightly grips the front of his shirt. His arms hovers around the female. “It is okay.” She whispers, but he ignores her and wraps his arms around her tightly. Her breathing begins to calm.

“I don’t remember you.” He pauses. “But I do believe you.” He waits for her response but realizes she fell asleep in his arms.


	10. The End of All Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 10: Mara's last day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've taken forever to update.. So if someone was waiting, I'm sorry.  
> Anyways, thanks for checking this out. This is the last day; there will be one chapter for the aftermath. Thank you!

Mara stirs in Tony’s arms and he places a kiss on her forehead in hopes of calming her. “Hey, it is okay. I’m right here.” She looks at him cautiously before rubbings her eyes and scanning the guest room. “it’s okay Mara.” He whispers into her hair. Mara wiggles out of his grip and tries to stand, but he grabs her wrist and holds her in place. “What’s wrong?”

She runs her free hand through her hair before using that same hand to punch him in his chest. “Why did you let me fall asleep? I have-.” She begins to look around the room again before F.R.I.D.A.Y. catches on and creates a holographic clock. 6:50 AM. “I have 17 hours! You let me sleep for two hours? Why would you do that?” She shouts as she punches him again. 

“Hey! Stop it!” He says as he pushes her fists away from his chest before standing and glaring down at the girl. “What is the matter with you?”

“The matter with me? What do you think is the matter with me? I’m about to poof off of the face of the planet and my dad decided it was a smart idea to let me sleep!”

“You were exhausted and it’s not like you’ve slept much!” 

“17 hours! 17 hours! Oh my gods!” She shouts as she walks out of the room with her father following quickly behind her. “This cannot be happening! I haven’t graduated! I haven’t joined the army! I haven’t even got the chance to win the Nobel prize!” 

Tony freezes in place as his daughter continues to announce her bucket list before he shakes his head and continues behind her. “The army? Nobel prize? Gods?” 

“I haven’t even been to Disney Land!” She shouts as she enters the living room and circles around the couch. “I haven’t held a koala!”

“How have you not been to Disney la-.” 

“I want to hold one of those little balls of anxiety so bad! My literal spirit animal! Urgh!”

Tony sits on the couch and scratches his head as his daughter continues to do her laps. “Balls of anxiety? What are you even talking about?”

She seems to snap back into reality as she shakes her head and shoots her father a look of disappointment. “The koalas. Were you even listening?” She throws her hands up before continuing to circle the couch. 

“Is everything okay over here?” Steve says as he pops his head into the living room. Sweat stains the front of his tight athletic shirt. He nods to direct his question towards Mara before he uses his collar to wipe his face. 

“Everything is just going perfect Mr. America!” Mara shouts before plopping down on the couch next to Tony. “Everything is perfect.” She mutters under her breath before hiding her face in her hands. 

“Oh, look at the time! I actually have something really important I forgot to do. I will be back soon enough.” Tony says as he stands, excusing himself from the living room. “Steve.” He pauses by the door-frame. “Take care of her for me. I will be back soon.” 

As the elevator door shuts, Steve takes a seat near Mara. She looks at him then over his shoulder, “figures. When everyone who matters constantly leaves you, you’d learn to leave when your presence matters most.” 

“Hey.” Steve whispers and places a hand on the girl’s back. “He said he will be back soon. I promise he wouldn’t leave unless he had to.”

“You’re a bad liar Steve. Always have been.”

Steve gasps and knits his eyebrows, “I wouldn’t say I’m bad at it.”

She smirks at his defensiveness before shaking her head. “It’s okay Steve. You’re a bad liar because you’re such a good person. Plus, if I can figure out when The Black Widow is lying, I could figure out when Steve Rogers is lying.” She smiles before gently shoving him. He shrugs but ends up laughing. Her face lights up as she watches his joy, but quickly fades and she looks down at her hands, interlocking and pulling her fingers apart in anxiousness. “Steve?” She locks eyes with him and he nods for her to continue. “I know why Tony is hesitant to believe me, but why don’t you? 

His eyebrows form a V as he thinks about her question. “It is complicated-.” He begins to say. 

“I mean. Everyone who believes me got all their memories back. Why don’t you believe me?” 

“It isn’t that I think you’re a liar. I just. My job is to protect the team.”  
Your job is to protect me. She wants to say, but before she can the whole team piles into the living room. 

“It is officially 7 in the morning. We have 17 hours. We should all get an hour alone with Mara and then the rest of the day we spend together. I’m assuming everyone is well rested. It is going to be a frantic day.” Natasha states. 

Everyone seems to be in agreement about the arrangement, but then they begin to argue about who is first. Their attention is directed towards Bruce as he begins to have an argument of his own with the Hulk. Before anyone can even do anything, the Hulk is stomping across the living room and throwing Mara over his shoulder, causing her to laugh loudly. “Hulk go first!” He roars before carrying the laughing girl out of the room. 

“I guess big guy is calling the shots now.” Sam says, crossing his arms and leaning deeper into the couch. 

*****

Two minutes after his hour is up, Hulk gently places Mara back onto the couch. “Wow. Big guy, I didn’t think you’d return her.” Natasha says as she stands to take her turn. 

“Hulk play fair.” The Hulk says before gently stroking Mara’s cheek with his index finger. Suddenly the green begins to fade away. Banner moves his hand to keep his loose pants from falling. “That doesn’t count as my hour.” He rushes to say as Natasha leads Mara away from the group.

“Sure.” Natasha says with a sly smile. Mara and Natasha stop suddenly as the elevator door dings and the doors slide open. Tony steps out, followed by Rhodey. 

Mara holds her breath and gets stuck in place as Rhodey approaches her. He circles around her once before stopping in front of her. “Okay. Are you just going to stand there or are you going to show your uncle some love?” He wraps his arms around her, lifting her off the ground and spinning her around. 

As he places her back on her feet, Mara stares at Rhodey unsure, but her attention is brought back to Natasha who says, “we decided everyone gets an hour with her. It is my turn.” She grabs Mara’s arm to lead her away, but Tony cements himself in front of Natasha. 

“I haven’t spent any time with her, so if you don’t mind Ms. Romanoff I will be taking the girl.” Rhodey says as he steals Mara from Natasha’s grip and walks into the elevator. Rhodey winks at Tony as the doors close. “Gotta admit, I thought Tony was going crazy, well crazier than usual, when he called me and told me about you being here and all that witch stuff, but you are definitely Tony’s daughter.”

*****

“Stark, I swear Rhode’s time is going to start cutting into your time.” Natasha bites.

Tony mimics her glare, “She is my -.”

“We are back!” Rhodey sings as the two return. 

“Why are you the way you are?” Tony questions as he realizes the two changed out of their clothing and into cheap Iron Man costumes. 

“I hope you weren’t planning on changing because it’s my turn and we have to hurry if we want to go to the shooting range on 20th street.” Clint says as he walks past Mara.

“Why wouldn’t we just go to your floor? Why would we go out in public?” Mara whines, suddenly aware of how ridiculous she looks. 

“It would be selfish of me to hide you from the public in that fantastic costume.” Clint smiles as the elevator doors begin to close. 

“Clint!” Mara shouts as the doors close on her face. 

“Ms. Mara, Mr. Barton says change and meet him in the target room on his floor.” F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s voice announces through the hall. 

“I guess I’ll just wait here.” Natasha rolls her eyes. 

*****

“This is it. It is the time to determine who is truly the strongest warrior. Only one should walk away from this fight.”

“That will be the only outcome that makes sense. I accept your challenge.”

“I’m warning you, I will not hold back and I will not stop just because your cry out for me to.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t ask you to. I’m ready. It really seems like you’re trying to talk me out of this one, but is that really to spare me or is that to spare you?”

“Enough talking.” Natasha throws her right arm out in a punch before pulling her elbow back and taking a fighting stance with her two fists out in front of her chest. “Let’s do this.”

Mara smiles and begins to switch back and forth between her feet. “I was born ready.” She is the first to jump forward and the two fall into a routine, taking turns throwing punches and dodging them. 

“Give it up.” The Black Widow demands before flipping the girl onto her back.

“I can do this all day.” Mara whispers before wrapping her leg around her aunt and flipping them over. “Persistence is key. Eventually you’ll be too tired to get back up and I’ll be the one to walk away with victory tattooed across my chest.”

“Tattoos are permanent and you’re bound to lose a battle sometime in the future if you were lucky enough to win this one. But don’t get too excited, not even all the luck in the world can make you win this one.” The Black Widow bites as she flips them over again and pins the girl down with her elbow to her neck. “This isn’t your fight to win.”

“If you go in thinking you’ll win, then you will.” Mara whispers before she frees her right arm from under her aunt’s knee and sticks it out. “Every fight is mine to win.” Scraps of metal appear around the girl’s hand. She faces her palm towards the floor before the repulsor goes off and her body is lifted. Natasha quickly grabs onto the girl and they end up spinning in the air until they crash into the gym wall. 

“Dammit Mara. You’re such a cheater!” Natasha shouts after she lands on her back. 

“I would have flown just fine if you didn’t clench onto me like a leech.”

“Sorry, did I step on your moment?” Natasha smirks at her niece who lays pouting next to her. 

“My everything hurts.”

“Are you giving up?” Natasha mocks, slowly standing to look down upon her niece.

Mara props herself on her elbows then spits to her side. Blood stains the floor. She cracks her neck once before standing again. “What part of ‘I can do this all day’ did you not understand?”

“The part where you were stupid enough to not know when to give up.”

“My aunt taught me that was never an option.” Mara smiles at her aunt before shrugging and stretching her hand out. Natasha smiles and relaxes her shoulders before reaching to shake Mara’s hand. Before she can process what’s happening, she’s lying on her back again. “The downfall of The Black Widow will be due to her emotionally driven alter ego Natasha Romanoff.”

“Oh, bite me.” Natasha rolls her eyes before standing again. The sound of an alarm echoes through the gym. “Times up. Who’s left?”

“Tony and Steve… Well if either of them wants to spend time with me... 9 hours.”

“Make them.”

“Sure, I’ll lift them over my shoulder like Hulk does.”

Natasha laughs at the thought before turning to her niece. “How’d you get the bleeding edge?” 

“You guys kept leaving me by myself and you know I can’t do anything but create when I’m alone.”

“Huh. I always knew you were smarter than Tony.”

*****

Steve hesitates outside of Tony’s lab before taking a deep breath in and raising his hand to knock. The door slides open before his knuckles make contact with the glass and Steve hesitantly wanders in. “Tony, I need to talk to you.”

“Is it about Mara? Is it my turn?” Tony asks without turning away from his work.

“It isn’t about Mara exactly. She mentioned something and I’ve been meaning to bring it up.” Steve keeps a safe distance from Tony. Tony spins around in his chair to face Steve who stares at the floor like it is the most interesting thing in the world. “You know how much I care about the team. I know you know because you also care about them so you know I feel about the team.”

“Okay, wow. Take a breath Capsicle.”

“It’s just. I care about the team and I care about you. When S.H.I.E.L.D. was trying to catch me up with what has been happening they gave me some files. Files of you, your dad, Peggy.” Steve pauses and squeezes his eyes shut. “And there was information in the files that aren’t public knowledge. I learned something and I didn’t tell you because like I said I care about the team and I care about you. Tony, I really care about you and I thought not telling you would protect you. I thought I could protect you.”

“What are you talking about Steve?”

“It’s about your-.”

Their conversation is cut off as the glass doors slide open again and Mara and Natasha waltz in. “We have 9 hours boys. Take as long as you need, but make sure we have some time to watch a movie later.” Natasha says as she pushes her niece closer to her parents and leaves the room. 

“I can come back if you’d guys li-.” Mara starts but Steve cuts her off. “No, it’s okay. I guess it’s my turn before you hang with your pops, huh?” Steve frantically walks towards Mara. 

“Wait.” Mara and Steve freeze as Tony calls out to them. “Have fun.” He finishes.

Mara casts a side glance at Steve who’s face and ears have turned a light shade of pink. “Of course.” Steve calls back before the two exit the lab.

“Is everything okay, Stevie?”

“Um. I was just about to tell him about his parents. Like you told me to.”

“Oh.” Mara stops in place. “I can wait if you want to go back in and talk to him.”

“No!” Steve shouts nervously, but then offers Mara a forced smile. “No, I just mean we wouldn’t want to waste our time together.” He smiles at her more genuinely. “So, what is it you’d like to do?”

******  
“So, this is normal?” Steve strains to say, pushing the young girl’s hands from his neck. His confusion being the only thing allowing Mara to pin him down. 

“Oh, totally. My favorite thing in the world is to spar with all you guys.” Mara takes a fighting stance as Steve gets onto his feet. 

“And you don’t get hurt?” He asks as he lunges for her. 

“Can you really spar without getting hurt?” The girl slides between his legs, getting back to her feet and kicking him in the back. 

“How are you so good at this?” He runs across the room and grabs for his shield, not looking back at the girl.

“A balance between strategy and being able to think on my feet.”

“Huh.” Steve says, flinging his shield towards the girl.

Mara falls back and balances herself with her right hand on the floor. She stays in that position as the shield bounces of the gym wall. She lifts her left hand up as the shield flies over her again and lets it glide over her fingers. 

“Nice.” He whistles as his shield returns to his hands. “Wait a sec, the weight’s off.” Mara smiles at Steve cunningly then shrugs her shoulders. “What did you-?” A jolt of electricity causes Steve to fall to his knees. When the shaking stops, he falls onto his stomach and groans loudly. “What was that?”

“I’m faster than you think, captain. Not only do I know your fighting style, I know exactly when you’re going to throw your shield.” She moves until she is standing over him. “And that you always catch it.” Her thumb runs over a red button in her palm again, but before Steve can object another jolt runs through his body. He falls forward onto his stomach and groans louder than before. “Don’t worry Stevie. Only I know how to take down the great captain of America.”

Steve rolls onto his back and looks up at the girl who wears a smug look on her face. “You could have just smiled. That would have done the job.” The girl bites the inside of her cheek, but can’t suppress the smile that grows on her face. “You have a million-dollar smile.”

She blushes and looks away, “You’ve said that before. Told me I had my pop’s smile. Not the one he flashes at the cameras and the donors and the press. The one he gives to the people he cares about.” Her smile fades and she sighs. The lights flicker twice and Mara sighs again. “8 hours.” She whispers.

Steve looks at her sympathetically and gets to his feet. “I guess its Tony’s turn.”

“Oh, I was hoping to spend some more time with you.” She looks at him with pleading eyes.

“Yeah, okay we can do that. I just assumed you’d want to spend as much time as you can with you dad.” Steve says as he goes to sit on the gym bench. Mara laughs at the joke only she understands and rolls her eyes, not even bothering to tell Steve only again that she only calls Tony pops, papi, or father. Steve interlocks his fingers, moving them together so his knuckles crack.

Mara giggles as she sits down next to him. “Are you still nervous about talking to Tony or is there something you’ve been trying to tell me?” Steve looks up at her with one eyebrow raised in question. “The finger thing. You’re nervous. I do it to.” She says, looking over his shoulder.  
He clears his throat then nods and looks down at his hands, laying them on his thigh self-consciously. “I don’t want to pry, but I was going to your room when I saw Tony run in. Were you having a panic attack?” 

“Yup. And anxiety attacks just like my pop used to.”

Steve stares at her until she locks eyes with him, “Tony had panic attacks? In your world?”

Mara rolls her eyes and shakes her head, “Ha. Tony had anxiety attacks his whole life. He’s had panic attacks since Afghanistan. That’s not just in my timeline Steven.” 

“I-.” Steve runs a hand through his hair. “I didn’t notice anything. He’s so confident all the time.”

“Well don’t beat yourself up about it now. You can’t change the past. When I’m gone-.” “Don’t-.” “When I’m gone, maybe you can start looking out for him.” Mara insists. “If I’m right. Well I know I’m right. The past few years have been really hard on him and he’s not doing too well emotionally and-.” Mara is cut off as the gym doors slide open and Tony steps in. “Speaking of the Devil.” She laughs and looks at Steve who still looks distraught. 

“Winghead, you look upset. Has the little spy here hurt your super soldier feelings?” Tony mocks as he approaches the two. “Not going to lie, Mara. The team watched you beat up Natalia. Also, not going to lie. We saw you kick Cap’s ass.”

Steve gasps, “language Tony.”

“Really, that’s all you’re worried about?” Tony laughs as he nudges Mara to make room on the bench for him. 

“I’d be lying if I said she didn’t put up a good fight.” Steve says certainly and pats Mara on the shoulder. She rolls her eyes and looks over at Tony as if to ask, “can you believe this man?”

Tony leans forward so he can see Steve, looks at Mara, then back at Steve. “Yes, but she’d be lying if she said you put up a good fight.”

Mara and Tony’s laughs echo each other and Steve tries to look offended, but he can’t. Instead he pushes Mara into Tony’s side and like dominoes they fall over the side of the bench and onto the floor. Steve rolls his eyes as the pair continue to laugh hysterically, but a smile is plastered on his face. “You too are dorks.” 

“Your.” Mara tries to speak through her laughter. “Your dorks.” She wipes the tears off her eyes. Her eyes grow wide as she realizes what she has said and she hopes correcting herself will distract her parents. “You’re a dork.” She finally spits out. Tony starts to take deep breaths to calm himself, but chuckles escape his lips. 

“Okay. Okay. How about you dorks go do your thing before the team movie?” Steve asks as he stands from the bench and goes to leave the gym.

“See ya later, Winghead.” Mara calls out. 

Tony attempts to make bird noises, “caw, caw!”

Mara looks at him with a confused look, but turns back to see Steve has stopped by the doors. He spreads out his arms and flaps his imaginary wings, before turning and walking out the sliding doors. Mara and Tony return to laughing on the floor. 

“Okay.” Tony tires to say, but starts laughing again when Mara snorts. “Okay. The armor you had on your hand. It came out of nowhere. Okay, calm down now. How did you do that?”

Mara takes a deep breath in and finally calms herself. “Obviously it didn’t come out of nowhere. It came out of my skin.”

“You mean you implanted chips under your skin that communicate with your nervous system and allow the parts to fly onto your body?”

“No, it came from in my skin. It is made of Nano-Machines that can turn into whatever I want. If I want it to be the suit I just need to command it to.”

Tony scoffs in disbelieve and gets to his feet. “Yeah, okay.”

Mara also stands and steps in front of Tony. “You don’t believe me?”

“I do not.” Tony says but jumps back when a suit forms around Mara’s body. “Oh my-.”

“Not believing me is one thing, but not believing in yourself is another. Who do you think created the technology in the first place?” The mask vanishes from Mara’s face and she smirks. Tony raises his hand cautiously in front of the suit, looking at the details with wide eyes. 

“Holy cow.” He whispers as he stares at the impossible – his daughter and a magic suit. He jumps back again as the suit changes to a dark blue combat suit, but he laughs at the girl’s smug face. “Steve’s stealth suit? Nice.” 

“I thought you’d get a kick out of it.” She smiles. “Now how about we go for a ride?”

******  
Tony, Sam, and Bruce take their conversation into the kitchen. Three clicks are heard as  
Tony starts the next round of beers. Steve’s upper body is hidden by the TV as he attempts to connect the video camera. 

“Cap, please. Just bring me the video and I’ll have F.R.I.D.A.Y. put it on the screen.” Tony pauses his conversation to mock Steve who just groans in response. “Cap, seriously.”

“Let me do this Tony.” Steve almost whines, continuing to mess with the cords. Mara shakes her head and looks around the room at her family. Her smile fades as her cup slips out of her hands and splashes on the carpet.

“Mara?” Natasha’s tone is laced with worry. She stands slowly.

**

20 She feels it starting.

19 Her insides feel twisted, but then they don’t.

18 She’s disappearing from the inside out.

17 Tony is _so_ far. Did he have to sit across the room?

16 Tony is _too_ far. Why is he so stubborn? 

15 Steve is closer. God, he is so much closer.

14 She takes off. Distancing herself from Tony with each step, and that crushes her.

13 It is obvious to them now.

12 The girl is vanishing in front of them.

11 They don’t move; they are all stuck in place.

10 **Except** …

9 Tony jumps over the kitchen island. 

8 Pure adrenaline allows him to move like he’s never moved before.

7 Don’t breathe. Just run.

6 He’s close. Oh, he’s _so_ close.

5 She slams into Steve’s chest and clings onto him with all her strength.

4 Steve looks down at her then up at Tony.

3 He smiles because he remembers.

2 She is his, he is hers, and they are Tony’s. 

1 She looks at him with wide eyes and he’s no longer smiling as he realizes what is happening.

0 He goes to wrap his arms around her but she is gone. 

-1 Tony slams into Steve’s chest and Steve clings to him.

-2 They fall over and Steve’s back hits the ground.

-3 Steve squeezes Tony so hard he will definitely bruise him. 

-4 But that is the last thing on Tony’s mind as he begins to weep in Steve’s embrace.

-5 The team watches. This is their reality.


	11. One More Breath For You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After midnight on her 10th day and a look at life before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had this ending written almost since I started the story, but along the way I wrote an alternate ending... I know as a writer I should pick one, but it is my first time so whatever, right? Thank you for reading! Comments and kudos are appreciated greatly!

The air acts as a vacuum, sucking out the only oxygen left in her lungs. The area is pitch black and her stomach has a sinking feeling as she feels herself falling. She falls and falls, then falls some more. Her head tries to tilt to the side, but then her body turns with it. She shifts her face back up, so she’s falling face up. “Not again!” Mara cries. “Please!”

The black sky shifts to a grey screen before showing her parents. 

_“This was a bad idea. All of it. We should have known that we were being stupid when we got ourselves into this mess. Two gay superheroes raising children? What gave us the idea that any of this could work out? What gave us the idea that we can actually be happy?” Tony sits in the corner of his room, hugging his knees to his chest as Steve passes by the door._

_“We’d be happy if you weren’t constantly going on and on about how this can never work! Because it was working, Tony! I was happy, the kids were happy. Why couldn’t you ever accept that?”_

_“Oh, so this is all on me. I’m the reason why you and the kids are no longer happy?”_

_Steve stops in place, “that isn’t what I said. I just think that it all would have been easier if you tried to pretend like you didn’t believe one of our kids will randomly fall off the face of the Earth!”_

_“Hm.” Tony laughs to himself. “Well since you have all the answer captain, what happens to the kids when this doesn’t work out?”_

_“What is it you’re asking exactly? Do you want-.” Steve stops as he hears a knock on the door. “Come in.” He says in a calm voice. The door creeks open revealing Mara and Peter on the other side. “Look at you guys. You look wonderful.” He says lovingly. Peter wraps himself around Steve’s side, but Mara remains by the door._

_“Auntie Tasha said it is time to go.” She whispers, keeping her eyes on the floor. “Peter and I will be in the car._

_“Okay, sweetie. Papi and I’ll be right down.” Steve smiles at Mara then runs his hands through Peter’s hair. Peter follows Mara down the hall and laughs loudly when she stops, causing him to run into her. Steve stands by the door and takes one last look at Tony. “Let’s just get this over with then we can continue our conversation.” He says in a bitter tone before leaving Tony sitting on their bedroom floor._

_“Yeah, whatever.” Tony whispers when Steve is out of reach._

_Steve and Tony sit in silence in the car ride to the restaurant. Peter and Natasha discuss the latest crime fighting movie, poking Mara on the shoulder occasionally to ask for her thoughts. She answers certainly before placing her headphones over her ears, closing her eyes, and laying back in the car._

_When they enter the restaurant, Steve smiles widely when Bucky approaches them. Tony rolls his eyes, but he also smiles when he sees Rhodey sitting by the others. Peter shoves Mara to get her to pay attention to anything else, but their parents._

_“Mara. Stop pouting.” He whispers as he shoves her again._

_“Don’t be a brat.” She bites._

_“This isn’t going to work if you keep being mean to me.” He whispers again, turning to walk away._

_Mara grabs onto his arm tightly, “I’m sorry. This will work. It has to.” She whispers and Peter nods. “Now let’s go take our seats.”_

_The family engage in conversation as the waiters bring out the food._

_“We should have gone somewhere else.” Tony looks at Steve and rolls his eyes._

_Steve bites the inside of his cheek and continues cut his food. “You should have stayed home if you were just going to complain.”_

_“Okay everyone!” Peter shouts to capture everyone’s attention. He offers his biggest, brightest smile as he walks to the mini stage in the corner of the room. Mara kisses her fathers on their cheeks before following her seven-year-old brother to the stage._

_“Peter and I thought now was as good as a time as ever to read a little something for you all.” She says into the microphone._

_“Woo!” Bucky shouts in encouragement._

_“No, please don’t get too excited.” She smiles. “It is not original. We put no effort into writing anything.”_

_“Ah!” Their family fakes a whine in unison._

_“What did you expect? You wanted us to create something on our own?” Peter gasps, his lisp being very apparent as he speaks._

_“Tony has his robots do everything for him and Steve needs directions from a mission leader. You guys should know better.” The group burst out into laughter, but Steve and Tony exchange a confused glance. The 9-year-old girl holds her head high as she continues, “we are just teasing. No two people in the world work harder. Well in this world. The guardians work so hard they couldn’t even make it tonight.” The crowd’s laughter roars throughout the restaurant again. “Okay, no more jokes. I have a slumber party to go to next week and not even this rich Stark can afford to be grounded.”_

_“Stark? I thought you were a Rogers?” Peter asks with his hand placed on his hip._

_“My apologies Stark.” She says in an exaggerated Brooklyn accent._

_“No problem Rogers.” Peter replies._

_Tony and Steve exchange another confused glance. “What are they doing?” Steve whispers._

_“How would I know? You’re the one with all the answers.” Tony bites back._

_“Okay, okay. Now what we all came for.” Mara clears her throat, bringing her parents attention back to the stage._

_“Well, not exactly. We all came for the pizza and bread.” Peter shakes his head disbelievingly at his sister._

_“Oh yeah. But, the reason this day was planned was so we can come up here and make fools of ourselves.”_

_“Oh, I remember now.” Peter giggles. “Shall we start Rogers?”_

_“Of course, Stark.” Mara smiles before taking a deep breath in. “Um, okay.” Her voice shakes slightly as she pulls a sheet out of her dress pockets. She exchanges one final look with her brother for encouragement and then begins to read. “Tony, my love, my whole heart.”_

_Steve shifts in his seat uncomfortably as his kids continue. Peter begins to read from his sheet. “Steve, Cap, I wanted to propose to you that night at the banquet, but I also wanted to be a better person for you. And that included controlling my impulses.”_

_“I’m not sure when I started to have feelings for you, but I do remember when I fell in love with you.” Mara continues._

_“I wanted to change myself to become good and to be a better person because I loved you.” Peter says._

_“That night at the banquet was the first night either one of us really acted on our feelings.” Mara says in a quiet voice, taking a deep breath in and wiping the tear forming in the corner of her eye._

_They continue until both vows are finished. They smile at each other and Mara walks over to embrace her little brother. He shoves his face into her chest to hide his face and she lays her head on his._

_The car ride home is dead silent without Natasha present. Mara plays with Peter’s hair as he sleeps with his head in her lap. “Please don’t be mad.” She whispers._

_Tony turns around form the passenger’s seat and offers her a small smile. “We aren’t mad at you honey. We love you both very much. We just need some time to talk as adults.”_

_“Don’t do that.” She whispers._

_“Don’t do what?” He asks in a soft tone._

_“Don’t act like we are dumb just because we are kids. Don’t ever act like Peter is dumb.” Tears cloud her vision. Peter stirs in her lap, but she continues to play with his hair to calm down._

_“I don’t think either of you are dumb.”_

_“You made Peter feel like he was dumb and that is why we ran away and almost got killed.”_

_“Mara, stop.” Steve interjects._

_“No, she’s right.” Tony whispers as he leans back into his seat, “I’m sorry.”_

_“It isn’t your fault that monsters and villains like to attack us. But it is both of your faults when you hurt out feelings. This family will never be perfect, but Peter and I don’t expect it to be. We just need both of you to love us and accept us always.” Mara cries._

_“We know that honey.” Steve replies._

_“And we need you to include us in these conversations. We are all in this together. It isn’t just the two of you anymore.” She moves her hand to run it up and down Peter’s arm. “Actually, it was never just the two of you. The Avengers are your family and they care about you.”_

_The car comes to a stop in front of the Avenger’s tower. “Honey, please take Peter upstairs. I need to talk to your father.”_

_“What. Did you not just hear me?” Mara asks disbelievingly._

_“Please, baby.” Tony whispers. Mara rolls her eyes and softly nudges Peter._

_“Let’s go upstairs and play laser tag.” She whispers to her brother. Peter’s eyes open wide as he hops over her to leave the car._

_As the door closes, Steve turns to Tony. “I know this isn’t what you want, but I think it’s what I want and I think for the sake of the kids we should try-.”_

_“What do you mean? I thought you wanted to separate.” Tony’s eyes widen in surprise._

_“Why would I want to do that? I have everything I ever wanted.”_

_Tony bites his lip to prevent himself from smiling at Steve’s confession. “I thought that’s what you were trying to say earlier.” He practically whispers._

_“No, I thought you wanted to separate.”_

_“And why would I want to do that?”_

_“I don’t know.”_

_“Maybe Mara is right. If we include them in the conversations we wouldn’t be miscommunicating so much.”_

_“They always were smarter than us.”_

“Huh, so that’s how that went.” Mara laughs to herself. The screen goes black again and she continues falling. “So, what, my whole life is going to be shown to me then I’m dead? Wait, am I already dead? Do I just fall forever?” Mara calls out. 

A laugh fills the void and Mara’s body tenses in midair. “I said I’m not unfair.” Hecate’s voice echoes through the blackness. “I was just having some more fun with you and your family. You managed to do the impossible. I guess it’s my turn to hold up my end of the bargain.” 

And with that oxygen fills Mara’s lungs and the black void becomes colorful. She shuts her eyes as the lights become too bright and sting her eyes. “Ah!” She screams as the pressure pushes on her brain. A hand caresses her face gently and Mara opens her eyes ever so slowly. She sees Steve on his knees in front of her. Tony at his side and the rest of her family standing behind them. She looks around and realizes she’s in her room, sitting on her floor surrounded by her family – her _real_ family. 

“Oh, Gods you guys look so old.” She whispers. Steve and Tony smile lovingly at her, but she stands and jogs past them. Peter meets her half way and lifts her into the air like if she ways no more than a throw pillow. “Oh man, I missed you so much.”

“I knew you’d fix it.” He whispers into her hair as he gently places her back on her feet and hugs her tightly.

“You? Where were you? Were you hurt?” Mara speaks fast and looks up at her younger brother with worried eyes.

“It was pitch black. I could hear everything you guys were saying after a couple of days. You were talking to me and I think you heard me. It was so scary.” A single tear falls onto his cheek.

“I heard you. I did.” Mara whispers to her brother.

Their attention is brought back to their parents as Tony clears his throat. “We missed you too. No big deal or anything.” 

Steve side-eyes Tony, “what he means is take your time, but please don’t forget about us.”

“I literally spent the whole last week with you guys.” Mara rolls her eyes, but let’s go of her brother and walks over to her parents. She stuffs her face into Steve’s chest. “You guys sucked.”

“I know, honey.” Steve says while caressing her hair. “But you did so good. You did so good.” Steve uses one hand to gesture everyone over and soon Mara is being squished by her family. “You did so good.”

*****

Mara pauses outside her bedroom door, leaning her head against it before taking a deep breath and walking in. She walks cautiously towards her bed before taking a seat on the edge. She closes her eyes and leans her head back, taking another deep breath in and out. When she opens her eyes, a white paper on her dresser catches her eye. She hesitantly approaches the paper and frowns when she realizes it is blank. She turns it over, then back and words appear. 

_“When I said you could only tell one of your parents, I meant biological.”_

A cackle followed by a loud howl sounds at a distance. Mara crumbles the paper, tossing it in her garbage bin. “Psycho bitch.” She whispers.

“Language, Ms. Mara.” J.A.R.V.I.S. teases. 

“It is good to hear your voice J.A.R.V.I.S.” Mara smiles to herself, before throwing herself backwards onto her bed. “J.A.R.V.I.S.?”

“Yes, Ms. Mara?”

“How do you feel about getting a girlfriend?”

*****  
***  
********  
***  
*****

**Here is the alternate ending. Thanks for reading!**

*During the events of Civil War where Steve and Bucky take on Tony*

Steve brings his shield up behind him then back down, smashing Tony’s arc reactor over and over. Tony stares at him with these big scared eyes. Steve has seen them before.

_Steve’s breaths begin to calm as he cradles his son close to him. He hears some movement and hands off his son to his husband, “Tony take Peter.” Steve scans the area before locking eyes with his daughter. Her body was buried, but the top of her head stuck out. She held her chin up so she wouldn’t suffocate, “good girl.” Steve whispers as he tries to move a car door off her. The pile on top of her shifts and squishes her tightly. She looks up at Steve with the widest confused brown eyes, begging for him to help her. “Okay sweetie. You’ll be okay. Just hang in there. Daddy will get you out.” He moves away from her slightly before screaming for Hulk. In seconds the other avenger is tearing the pile off Mara and Steve takes her carefully in his arms. “You’re okay baby.” He whispers as he lays a gentle kiss in her hair._

Steve drops his shield, falling over to Tony’s side. “No!” He screams as he rolls onto his knees and touches his forehead to the ground. “Bucky, did you know!” He looks over his shoulder to see his best friend avoiding eye contact with him. “Answer my fucking question! I’m here protecting you, dammit!” He turns away, “You knew! You knew! How could you?” He shouts in disgust. Bucky shrinks in on himself and Tony stares at the two, not understanding what was happening. 

“Mara!” Steve shouts in agony. Tony shutters at the cries and suddenly Tony isn’t there, he’s somewhere else. 

_Tony rushes through the hallway of his family’s floor of the tower, searching for the screaming. He stops abruptly at his daughter’s room and runs inside to see Peter curled up by the closet door. “Pete, baby, what is wrong?” He says lowly to calm the boy, but before the boy could answer Tony hears the scream again. He turns to the back of his daughter’s room to see her in the arms of his husband. Steve holds her tightly, trying to keep her arms at her sides._

_“Mara, sweetie, you have to stop screaming.” Steve says, choked up. “Please, Tony help me. She won’t stop screaming.”_

_“Why won’t she stop!” Peter screams. Mara closes her eyes tightly, feeling sorry for making her brother cry._ _Tony’s feet remain stuck to the floor as paramedics rush in with a gurney and take the girl from Steve’s arms. "Mara!" Steve screams._

_“We will take care of her Mr. Stark.” The paramedic assures Tony as they rush out the room. Tony falls to his knees, looking at Steve’s arms where Mara laid before. Steve moves quickly, wrapping Tony in his arms._

Tony’s face is ghost white as he watches Steve cry out their daughter’s name. Bucky finally stands up, “I loved her too. We all did. It is all our fault.” He bites, walking out of the facility and then falling on his knees in the snow. Bucky looks up and screams at the top of his lungs until his throat can't take it anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for everything! I can't wait to start posting more one-shots and short stories.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
